The White Wolf of Azeroth
by Jyggilag
Summary: this is my first fic; be gentle with me ok it's a The Witcher/Warcraft crossover. since no one else decided to make a cross with this excellent series i decided to do it myself.
1. prologue part 1: A witcher's memories

**Author's note**: recently I been reading pretty good damn histories written by authors of this site, the fictions written by Tyrant of the East an Freedom Guard, inspire me to finally decide to write this fic. I find it really strange that no author of this site has written a fic about The witcher saga yet, so I decided to be the first one to do so, a crossover nonetheless with World of warcraft, and don't worry I'm not going to do a rip off of other stories, I ain't going to use a previously written history and change its main character for Geralt, I'm only going to use other stories as references, this is 100 % original more or less, but there is some events that I will like to include, for instance, Astranaar under demonic invasion, or dungeons like Blackfathom deeps , but that will be all, I really liked those ideas and I would like to see how Geralt will dealt which such situations, I want to have the opportunity to include them later after I had define the plot and the situations which going to be entirely different, and I intend to use a lot of dungeons. And I think I will mess with the time line a little to better fit with this fic. Or maybe not, we'll see. I don't have to respect the canon right?

Anyway this is my first fic, hope you like it, also I hope I don't end up writing complete crap, and I'm certain I will suck with the grammar in some parts, I ain't very good in that and the fact that I live in a Latin-American country which means English is not my nature tong and so there is a possibility of me screwing up the writing. Please notify me of any misspelling or grammatical error.

I had to put the second label as misc. games, because there is no label for The witcher, sory about that.

**Disclaimer: **I don't own warcraft or the witcher, either be the game or the books, each belongs to a bunch of people, that I just happen to have forgot their names. This is just me writing the first stupid shit that comes to my mind about what if; these two sagas mess with each other.

This story starts in the witcher several years (5 or 6), after the events of the game, wich allows for the events of the currently under process the witcher 2: assassin of kings to take place, and also to allow me, to not make a reference to an upcoming unreleased game.

In the wow timeline this take place just a little before the failed assault at Angrathar the wrathgate. Because I want Geralt go one on one against Arthas.

The White wolf of Azeroth

A The Witcher/ Warcraft cross over

Prologue –part 1

A witcher's memories.

His name was Geralt of Rivia, he was a witcher; a professional monster slayer for hire.

He was the son of sorceress Visenna and presumably a warrior named Korin. He was abandoned by his mother shortly after being born at the stronghold of Kaer Morhen; the wichter's main base of operations. There he was inducted to become a witcher.

The witchers were powerful individuals with superhuman abilities that had to undergo a series of dangerous and painful procedures at early ages, to obtain such abilities and improvements.

Through a series of rituals, that involves herbal preparations of mutagenic plants that force changes in the subject body, potions of powerful magic alchemy to improve their attributes, and inoculations of several lethal viruses to develop and immunity against virtually all kinds of poisons and diseases.

The benefits for those who survive such rituals was, an increasing in all their physicals and mental abilities, surpassing those of any mortal by a great deal, increased reflexes, speed, strength, a highly improved sense of smell, flexibility and hearing that reached superhuman levels, albeit such benefits didn't come cheap.

6 of 10 individuals who were inducted tend to die during the procedures and those who were successful, develop side effects, Geralt lost all pigmentation of his hair, turning as white as snow, his eyes change into a golden cat-like ones, allowing him to see in the night as good as if was day. But the most detrimental side effect was that because of the rituals he had been made sterile at tender age, he could not have children of his own when he manage to reach adulthood; no witcher could; it was a high and necessary price to pay in order to successfully create individuals that would manage to face the horrors that plague the land and survive.

Because Geralt body's show a quick acceptance of this changes, he was chosen, to undergo further experiments.

This experiments border between suicidal and insanity, of the few chosen only Geralt survive the procedures, losing all pigmentation of his body in the process, turning as white as his hair. But in exchange he had obtained a wide array of useful abilities.

His physical and mental prowess's were improve even more, he had develop a high resistance to pain, his skin had turn as hard and tough as sturdy leather, but the most impressive of all; was, that his body had develop and ability for self heal, wounds did not bleed as much as before, just the initial bleeding, and then the bleeding quickly stopped, allowing his body to shut the wounds by itself.

Indeed, quite useful improvements he had receive despite the disadvantages, for he will need both the improvements and the rigorous, harsh and thorough training in order to become an efficient witcher.

And a witcher he did become, of quite renown too, because of his looks, his albino hair and skin tone, and his face resembling in some measure the one of a wolf, much like the wolf head shaped steel amulet he had receive when had become a full fledged witcher, he was given the name of "_Gwinbleidd_" which means in the old tong "_The White Wolf_".

_The White Wolf_. - Geralt remembered

That is how the people used to call him, it's been a while since had heard someone using that name, now things had changed.

He remembered when he had started in the trade, when he had left Kaer Morhen with nothing but a basic equipment, his trusted swords, one of cold steel to face any human or humanoid specie who dare challenge him, and one beautiful, delicate and yet lethal silver sword, used against creatures that were vulnerable to silver and to face the monsters which he may encounter; his leather jacket that offer him a reasonable protection without sacrifice his mobility and flexibility, a basic alchemy set, that will allow him to make useful potions, oils and bombs that will help either by augmenting his already impressive array of abilities, offer him protection against certain elements and creatures, coating his blades to be deadlier against certain type of creatures, or to provide a useful distraction against his enemies.

He also had received a book in which to write and store his alchemical formulae's, smart to keep those in order, don't want to waste time and effort looking through a disarray of formulae's to find the desired one. It already include some basic formulae's of some minor potions, Geralt didn't doubt back then that more formulae's will come with time, others more powerful and useful that the ones he carried.

He was given a second book and an important one it was, for this is where the witchers write down his knowledge of the creatures and monsters that roam the land. A bestiary, a book with a rough leather paste engraved with the witchers symbol in its front; the wolf head, the same symbol that Gerald's amulet represents; a wolf looked by the front with his jaw opened, the hairs of his mane ending in spikes, the wolf was in a feral position, showing his fangs as if he was ready to attack, guarding the secrets stored in the book pages, for this were many indeed, inside the book was a precisely account and description of several of the most common and dangerous creatures, monsters and beast that were feared by the people of the lands. It came with images, combat strategies to face them, a detailed explanation of their strengths and weaknesses, the proper steps to destroy them and in some cases to cure them, indeed this was a precious valuable gift, it also came with several hundred pages in blank, for Gerald to write his own impressions and to catalogue any creature that was miss in the book, whether be by facing them or finding their descriptions in other books or bestiaries.

He received a well detailed map that contains most of the layout of the continent and his main kingdoms. It's always a rational thought to carry a map, so one may not get lost in unknown lands.

Finally he carried 2 leather shoulder straps across his body that act as a bandolier of some sorts where he could carry many vials whether be oils or potions, one had a bag that hang from his lower left side of his upper body, this straps also serve to carry his swords sheaths in his back, also he carried a big wide leather belt, full of bags that hang from it, and compartments, both from the front and the back in where to store his gold, alchemical ingredients, objects of value, and several other miscellaneous items and also to safeguard his books. The straps he wear could be swap of their places should he felt the need to give himself a minor look change.

The rest of his attire where some leather travel pants and boots, with some leather stripes attached to his right leg to carry more vials or even some throwing knifes, black studded leather gloves, and a plain cotton shirt that he wear underneath his black leather jacket.

Yes; the witchers had prepared and equip him well for the dangers of the trade.

He remembered those days when the continent was plagued with monsters, from the lands of Temeria, Cintra, lyria & Rivia in the northern kingdoms to the Nilfgaard Empire in the south.

The insecurity in the roads was a result of the social and racial discontent, and the poverty left by the constant wars between nations. It was because of this incapacity to deal with the monsters, that the witchers where created.

To kill and get rid of the monsters in exchange of payment, simple enough in theory, not so simple in practice hence the need of the rituals and experiments.

The witchers prove to be very efficient in their endeavor cleansing the lands of monster and beast that threatened villages and roads, they were relentless and highly professionals in their jobs, until the day that monsters started to become a rare sight, the witchers had done a fine good job, one too damn good; that in the end prove to be detrimental for their life styles; for what good is a monster slayer without monsters to slay?

Due to their incredible skills the witchers were often desire by powerful lords and kings to give them an edge in their political plots at the promise of riches and glory. Geralt never had illusions of glory and grandeur, he knew from an early age the ways of which the world function.

Most of the times the witchers or at least Geralt reject such offers but as time passed by and the need for monster slayers diminish; the witchers were force to take such endeavors.

They were what it was expected to be, assassinations, intimidations, extortions, sometimes even attacks against a particular ethnic group, none of this give Gerald any sort of pride but at least gave him enough gold to live by.

To be needed and feared at the same time that was the witcher life, because of the services he offered, he was needed, but because of the power he wielded, he was feared and despised, others simply coveted his power for their own.

Such hatred reach its peak point with the assault of the stronghold of Kaer Morhen most of the witchers there, were slain, and their secrets stolen. Since then no new witchers were trained so there was no one to carry with the trade if the current ones suddenly died, they had become an endangered species much like the monsters that they themselves slay, in some ways of though such condition seemed fitting.

Geralt knew too well about the hatred and fear that the people profess against those who are different; he remembered when he almost died at the hands of an angry mob who was taking a pogrom in motion against the ethnic minorities in the city of Rivia; the city of wich he took his name.

He survived, lost his memory in the process and later managed to recover it with the help of old and new friends. Taking his old life back, undertake assignments again, slaying monsters once more, and the occasional work for the local political factions, offering his services to nobles, saving kings and kingdoms, and getting a hefty pay in the process; same old story.

All this allow him to discover and set his efforts to track and dealt with those that stole the witchers' secrets during the siege of Kaer Morhen.

It's been a while since that now, he had managed after much effort to track and confront the people responsible, who only desired the witchers' secrets for their own personals and envious goals, beliving that it was for the greater good, he had to kill them in the end; it was inevitable. But he manage to recover the stolen secrets and formulae's of the witchers rituals, and returned them to his few brothers that tried to rebuild the order in Kaer Morhen once more.

Still…. pretty much little had change; witchers were still a dying race, whose need where diminish more and more with every passing day, but lords still wanted them for their own ends. He was still the same man.

Which take us to the present; He had change very little that's for sure, his face was the same, a handsome yet tough face, a strong chin, fine features, yet they where settle in a way that make his face look like a wolf, it was not a great notable feature it was most a subtle one, a weird combination between man and beast, making him look like a fine man yet at the same time he gave a predatory feeling.

The scar that crosses his left eye was still there, from his left brow, down to his cheek, until reaching the same altitude of where his nose trails begin, descending in the form of a slightly curve, heading towards, his ear.

His white hair loosely falling down from his head, until reaching his shoulder length. His golden cat-like eyes still possessed the gaze of a predator.

The only mentionable of having change was his equipment he still possessed a black leather jacket though this one was different it was called the Raven Armor, it was of a really sturdy leather, and had beautiful engravings in his surface, it had some metal knobs that were tailored at the shoulder length to fall and hang from the sleeveless jacket to protect the upper part of his arms, he also had acquired a set of 2 black metal knobs in the form of plates to protect his forearms, this he used them in conjunction with his gloves which now where armored too; they now had 3 metal plates each to protect different sections his forehands and forefingers, without impeding their mobility.

His shoulder straps, where changed by others that where twice as wide as the previous ones, and they had several pockets and small bags that were attached onto it to have more storage capacity, not to mention the compartments to hang vials and throwing knifes. Improving the witcher storage capacity, yet he still retain a traveling bag attached to one of his stripes, that was left hanging from his left side, just like the previous straps.

The leather straps in his right leg were pretty much the same except that now they had a small bag attached in the section of the back of his leg, without diminish the number of compartments to hang vials and throwing knifes.

He still was using his white cotton shirt only that now he use it underneath a chain mail, so it was not seen unless he take it out his chain mail first. His entire attire was now of the same black color, except of course the straps and his belt. His leather travel pants and boots where now as black and sturdy like his jacket, his boots now had metal plate guards in its tips and in their beads, for better protection to his feet.

And finally; the witcher's amulet still hanging from his neck, the chain lazily falling down making the wolf head rest in the middle of his chest.

The witcher was currently preparing himself for a new assignment, he had finally manage to received one that wasn't dedicated to secure the political position of some vain lord; this mission unknown to him, will take him farthest that he never had go in the past.

But that's another story; for another time.


	2. Prologue part 2

**Author's note: **I originally had intended to include this chapter within the previous one, so that both became the part 1 of the prologue, I wanted the first part to be in the witcher's world, and the second one in the warcraft world, however I ended with a very long chapter that I had to split it in two, so now I had to turn the warcraft background chapter in the first chapter, I will have to cut most of the background that I wanted to use to explained what was going on in the warcraft world before the witcher arrive. Otherwise it will be too long; (wel;l it will still be, too long)because also, I have to write the tie-in.

Disclaimer: I don't own the witcher or warcraft. Each belong to their respective authors

Prologue - part 2

An unexpected way to end an assignment

His name was Geralt of Rivia, he was a witcher; a professional monster slayer for hire.

Currently; the witcher was travelling towards the Dragon Mountains foothills, in the Region of Narok, in the most northeastern part of the northern kingdoms; he had receive word in the city of Rakverelin about vampires in a surprisingly great numbers terrorizing the villages that linger at the mountains shadow; believing to take residence in some ancient ruins of a long lost civilization buried deep within the mountains. There he took the assignment from the local governors to deal with the situation.

Geralt wasn't much surprised about the location, vampires tend to inhabit ruins and abandoned settlements, sometimes even caves and grottos, what did really surprise him was the unprecedented quantity of vampires in a single place, it was a surprise because vampires tend to live in small packs, that barely reach the dozen, even vampires lairs and nests tend to uphold just a few dozens of vampires.

The rumors talk about hundreds upon hundreds of vampires that fill the mountains at night taking innocents into their underground lair, another surprise is that many different kind of vampires where in the same places, lesser vampires like the Ekimma, the Fleder and The Garkain, hanging around higher ones like Bruxas, that all that many species manage to reside in one place without complication, make Geralt wonder about if this were the work of a powerful vampire, extending some form of control upon the lesser ones. But what really bothers him was why vampires should suddenly reunite in such a great numbers? Especially nowadays that their species were almost at the brink of extinction, such action make them, easy to spot and attack, ensuring his race demise.

Despite this unanswered questions; the witcher show no doubts about undertaking this assignment and promptly made the proper arrangements for his travel.

The witcher wasn't travelling alone, a guide, a simple hunter was offered to him, to take him to the entrance were it was believe that the vampires had taken residence.

They had leave early in the morning, to reach the entrance by day, impeding the vampires to either flee or outnumber him in the open plains.

They finally reached the cave entrance after climbing for several miles until reaching the snowy part of the slopes, the cave laid safely and undisturbed between the mountain slopes.

"Well… here we are Ser; this is the place from where those foul beasts take the poor fellas, who had the dire luck of being catch by those fiends" Said the guide, a bearded fifty old aged man with a tattered travel hat, dressed in some old clothes for hiking, that were now barely something more than rags.

"Best for you not to linger too much inside that place ser, I wouldn't want to find myself in such a confine space when those fiends wakeup looking for their nightly bites…. yer' would have to excuse if I don't stay waiting for yer' return at the entrance" said the man with a nervous smile.

"Don't worry old chaps, I know how to care of myself, and if worst come to past I have some nasty surprises waiting for those bloodsuckers" said the witcher without taking his gaze away from the cave entrance.

He then grab a vial from one if his shoulder straps with his left hand, a yellow oiled liquid, with a slightly green glow, was seen from inside the vial, Vampire Oil, a special brew that was noxious to vampires, the witcher used his other hand to unsheathed his silver sword, the sword shine beautiful under the mountain sun; the witcher promptly open the vial with his mouth, and coated the silver sword with its oily contents. He received a curious look by his guide who was watching the entire process.

The witcher paid him no heed, and turned the empty vial and cork back to one of his pockets; He then grabbed another vial; a clear blue liquid was seen from its interior, Black Blood; an effective countermeasure against those who wanted to make a snack out of him, he opened and drink all of the vial contents, suffering for a brief moments of the effects that the potion had over his body while this accepted the beverage.

His veins where then clearly visible through all the exposed parts of his body; his face mostly, the veins of his face and neck where starting to making themselves more and more visible through the witcher's skin, like trying to burst out from his body, turning into a deep black as the void between stars, his golden cat-like eyes turning as black as his veins, the witcher made no gesture during this process; showing no discomfort about the changes occurring in his body, always keeping a calm posture while having his head tilted upwards, but it was just a brief moment, just as quickly the effects show themselves, as quickly disappeared, the witcher's body settling down and relaxing.

The witcher then, return his gaze upon the cave entrance, with a determination in his face, and without uttering a word, he venture himself inside the looming darkness of the cave, silver sword in hand; disappearing in the blackness, never giving not even a single look back; Leaving the speechless guide alone to deal with the long trek back to civilization.

Geralt, descended through the cave tunnel for about half an hour, the tunnel had a slight diagonal turn, that descended deep into the bowels mountain ; he travel through this way warily with sword in hand, always in the lookout for any sort of creature that linger in the darkness.

His journey was uneventful, until he reached a large underground cavern, here he found a trail of what he was looking for.

: Sniff: Sniff:

The highly improved sense of smell of the witcher, detected a very well known scent.

Blood….trough some dim rays of daylight that where filtered through some cracks in the rock, the witcher manage to see what was left of some poor fellas, the mutilated rests of what once was human bodies laid spread across the stone floor, broken, tattered, and rip apart, by fang and claw, making a dreary visage of guts and gore.

A drop of blood was then seen by Gerald falling in front of him; the witcher turned his attention upwards and discover the creatures responsible for such massacre.- Fleders ; a disgusting bat-like creature, A foul combination between man and bat. Having the muscular complexion of a strong man, with small wings sprouting from their forearms reaching into his sides, with a head of a giant bad, and big circular red eyes (this one had it closed); and long stretched ears, that were directed slightly unto the back of his head, long stretched fingers, ending in sharps claws, his body pigmentation was of a slight brown, this vermin was unpleasant to the eyes.

The witcher found that the falling blood came from this particular fleder, a very obvious realization, one might add, the creature was hanging head down from the roof with his nose eyes and forehead, coated in the dried blood that fell from his mouth flooded with the blood of his victims.

Taking a moment to survey his surroundings the witcher realized that the entire majority of the cave walls and roof where overcrowded with fleders, not only fleders but also Garkains, these creatures where of the same type as the fleders, except uglier, if such a thing was even possible.

They had the same physical traits as the fleders, muscular body, long arms and claws, small wings under his arms, but his face is different, his mouth is bigger and wider than the one of the fleder, giving a horrible vicious look, because when open the mouth could stretch very far, managing to double the size of his head when fully opened, his fangs where more prominent than the ones of his cousin making them easier to spot. He did not had long ears rather some nasty pulsating protuberances in the back of his head, and his skin had a nauseating yellow-greenish color in his arms and legs, probably caused by moist and fungus, or even the dried blood of his victims. The rest of his body had a stone gray color. His nose and mouth had a bluish color.

The witcher realize that the roof was not separate by a great deal from the ground, so he could reach the vermins with a well performed jump, he decided to do it quickly and quietly, by using his flexibility and finesse; Lucky for him that the creatures were taking their daily nap.

The witcher assumed a jumping stance, gather momentum for a few moments and jump towards the sleeping creatures, he made quickly slashes in wide arcs with his sword, and manage to decapitate the fleder that he first spotted, but also manage to decapitate, other two fleders and a Garkain, their heads falling like melons to the ground making a muffled and dull sound, the bodies still attached to the roofs, to quickly and precisely the witcher was, that the creatures never realize that they were dead.

The witcher landed gracefully like a cat, without making noise, and turns his attention backwards to behold his handiwork.

"mmmpphh" the witcher muttered with a half smile, he then prepared to repeat the process with the rest of the vampires left.

He was quiet, precise and fast; he quickly reduced the number of vampires from several dozens to just a handful, in matter of minutes.

But when he was about to perform one last jump to end with the bats lives, he suddenly heard a scream behind him.

"**SCREEEEEEEEACHHHHHHH**"

The witcher turned around to face this attacker, and immediately set his gaze upon him.

It was an Ekimma , a more bestial version of the fleder, he shared some similarities with his cousins, except his body had a little more muscle, and it was covered in a disgusting pelt, his facial features were more bat-like, with a prominent filthy nose, he was more bat than man, his wing were bigger and stronger, the only thing that was the same as his other kin, was the legs.

The Ekimma lunged toward the witcher trying to take a bite on him; the witcher easily dodged the attack by taking a light jump backwards, he quickly launch a powerful thrust upfront, piercing the Ekimma chest with his sword, the witcher twirl his sword inside the creature chest, and pulled out away from the vampire.

The Ekima stood rigid for just a few seconds and fell up front dead; the witcher heard some stirring noises behind, he turned around to face the new threat; the Ekima screams had disturbed the rest of the other lesser vampires in the room.

2 fleders and 1 Garkain, where twirling, agitating their wings in the rooftop, making grunt noises, they took notice of the witcher presence, setting their eyes upon him and jumped towards his direction.

The witcher without losing a second, jumped too toward the direction of his assailants, thanks to his astonishing acrobatic abilities, the witcher manage to pass between without a scratch in midair, and cut their heads while he was near them, the creatures where long dead before their bodies touched the ground, heavily plummeted upon the stone floor, their heads rolling several feet's away.

The witcher landed gracefully, composed himself and took a brief moment to meditate in his current situation.

He was surprised by the lack of victims; yes there were mutilated corpses in the floor, but there were just a handful, not enough for the several dozen of vampires that he had just kill, which in reality explain why the corpses where in such condition, he could imagine all those vampire fighting trying to get a bite out of the few victims that were laid here.

"….mmmph….. Strange" the witcher said.

"There should be more victims" thought Geralt; this few victims where not be enough to fully quench the thirst of so many vampires. He then recalled to have seemed something similar in the past. Yes, he recalled, in some doghouses, of certain lords, the dogs where just fed with a few scraps of food to survive, but not enough to fully satisfied their hunger, it turn the dogs into vicious dangerous creatures, with mean that they would tear apart any unfortunate fool that tried to break-in the lord house without invitation.

If such was the case in his current situation then that will mean that this lesser vampires where nothing but guard dogs for someone more powerful; the witcher decided to keep going, whoever was behind this, he will not found it standing around alone in the dark; he reached the far side of the underground chamber an enter through the tunnel there, resuming his journey into the deepness of the mountains.

He continued walking for another half an hour until reaching another chamber like the one before, he decided to go stealthy this time no need to alert any creature playing sentry, he crouched inside the tunnel end, patiently waiting for any movement, everything was quiet for a few minutes, until some shadows start to move beyond some filtered sunlight rays, another Ekima.

The witcher having spotted the sentry cautiously started to stalk the Ekima, the creature was distracted munching some bloodied limbs, he quietly took position behind the Ekima without being seeing or heard, the Ekima unaware of its presence.

The witcher raised his sword, and pierced the Ekima skull with it; it was a precise, quick movement, he had managed to terminate the Ekima's life without disturbing the rest of his kin.

He then set his efforts in dealing with the rest of the vampires that where sleeping in the ceiling of this room without interruptions, taking the same steps as in the last chamber to clear the rooftops. After dealing with all the bloodsuckers he resumed his journey by exiting through the other side of the chamber.

He continued to going down through the tunnel for a couple of minutes until he reached a bifurcation; the witcher stops his tracks to ponder in his options; he walked and stopped before the path of the right setting his gaze upon its darkness.

: Sniff: : Sniff:

The witcher used his smell sense, to try to detect any scent, which might help him to take a choice.

"…mmph…..nothing." said Geralt.

He turned his attention to the other path and repeated the smelling process.

: Sniff: : Sniff:

"………..eh" the witcher detected the scent of blood, and decide to go through the left path, for here is where his quarry had gone through.

After travelling for another couple of minutes he managed to reach a third chamber, but unlike the previous ones, this one is very spacious, he could not reach the ceiling by mere jumping.

He would have to deal with the creatures the old-fashion way. It will prove to be a challenging endeavor; for there were at least fifty of those creatures resting in the ceiling.

The witcher quickly spotted the sentry, this time it was just a normal fleder, he wasted no time, and ran towards is direction attacking with a vertical strike with his sword, he hit home in the fleder left shoulder and sunder the sword down to his right groin. The fleder screamed as he died, waking the rest of his companions.

There was a tumultuous cacophony of uproars, consequence of the witcher's actions, the vampires quickly took notice of him and lunged themselves against the witcher.

Geralt, kept his temperament in check, not despairing against the incoming menace, he simply made a upward attack in a wide horizontal arc, to end the life of the fleder that fell upon him, decapitate him with just one move, he immediately jump forward and delivered a series of wide attacks against his attackers, severing heads or cleaving chests in the process.

He had managed to fight his way amidst the tides of fangs and claws that threatened to tear and break him apart. Blocking, parrying, dodging and rebuking any incoming attack, he managed to seemingly keep at bay his attackers despite being seriously outnumbered, it's was his experience as a veteran witcher what kept Geralt alive. Launching attacks, feints and Counterattacks when opportunities show themselves, he successfully, cripple, mangle, cut and maimed any creature that was foolish enough to getting to close to him.

He was doing it well, the number of vampires where diminish rapidly, but he himself was not unscratched, he had receive some cuts and slashes, through all his body, luckily his leather armor and chainmail sustained the damage well, those attacks that had manage to tear his flesh, were already healing.

But he need it to make distance from his attackers, he could not keep going with this pace, or else he would be finish.

Finally the inevitable happened; he could no longer safeguard himself against the immense tide of enemies; one Garkain manage to go through his defenses plummeting him to the ground and biting him in the shoulder, others follow suit and he find himself getting bitten in several parts of his body and limbs.

But the witcher did not despair, pretty soon after getting knock down, his attackers release him from theirs grasps, those beasts who bite him where starting to move erratically, jerking uncontrollably. They made screams of dead, vomiting dark blackened blood trough their mouths, finally plummeting to the ground, twitching a little before any of their movements stopped completely.

The black blood was doing his work, poisoning and killing any bloodsucking fiends, who dare to feed from him.

The remaining vampires roared furiously realizing that they could not sustained themselves from Geralt, and lunge against him with murderous intent. If they could not feed from him, then at least they would have some entertainment from mutilating his corpse.

The witcher was amused, he relaxed a little now that all that was left of his enemies was barely a couple dozen, he effortlessly dodge their attacks making short work out of them; after a few more minutes of vicious combat he finally had dealt with all his assaulters, shoveling his silver sword in the face of the last one.

The witcher pullout his sword and cleansed it with his gloves from the grim of battle. Taking a moment to collect himself; the witcher pull out a vial of a crimson red liquid. - White Raffard's Decoction- A brew that will help him to heal more quickly his wounds and restore the blood lost at the hands of the vampires; Geralt drink from its contents and took a sigh to relax himself.

Knowing that there was no time to lose he lifted his sword and continued through the chamber towards another tunnel.

He kept walking for another trek until reaching into a great vault filled with stalactites and stalagmites, and paths that go through the underground valley of stones; here Geralt realized that he must have discovered a massive underground complex of interconnected tunnels.

The witcher saw some ruins at the far end of the underground vault, he could see that it was a ruff construction made of stone, probably a temple of sorts for the look of it, he was certain that it was there where he would found the responsible of this suddenly vampire uprising.

He would have to descend into the valley of stalagmites, and travel through them to reach the ruins. The witcher quickly set his efforts into reaching the temple, walking cautiously through the spiked rocks, it was an uneventful trek, except when he sometimes find one of the lesser vampires looming about, he quietly dispatched those nuisances until finally reaching the broken stairs to the temple.

The place had seen better days, one could only imagine how would have look during his full glory, it would appeared that the temple collapse and sunken upon itself, rock and dirt cover much of its surface, probably because of the occasional landslide that the temple had to endure during the passing of ages.

The witcher climbed through the broken stone stairs until reaching the top of the temple entrance, there he found images carved in its wall, probably some story about whatever gods where worship by those that built this place. , there were some statues too but were too much decayed and old to even had an idea of whatever it is what they once represented.

The witcher entered the temple and started to wander inside its corridors, were more images were carve in its walls, there were also some writing too in some parts, it would appear to be written in an early form of Elder Speech or old tongue as it is also known, he could not understand well some parts an others were missing or destroyed, but from what he could see this where some form of account about how the world came to be.

It mention something about powerful god-like metallic beings whose function was to shape worlds, the carvings mention something about them arriving to this one and helping in its modeling, it tell about their titanic endeavor of giving shape to the world for several centuries, helping and safeguarding the first beings that walked during the creation.

The carvings then tell about how this primordial beings where charged by the gods to watch over the land. For this the gods built for them a sacred place where powerful magic energies where held, to helped them in their endeavor and also to maintain the stability of the world. Then the carvings tell about the gods leaving, to continue with their mission of world shapers.

The history then tell of a ethereal dimension filled of immeasurable magics that connected the worlds, and how the primordial beings where interested in this dimension and the idea of travel to other worlds, it tell of the creation of a powerful magical crystal, created by using a great deal of the energies left behind by the gods for the nourishment of the world; the crystal was use to access this place, but then the primordial found something unexpected, the they had access was one were chaotic energies and terrible demons dwell, the demons slaughter many of the primordial who where force to shut down the gateway opened by the crystal before the demons were able to gain access to the world, leaving many of the primordials brethren behind at mercy of the demons.

It seemed that the shutting of the gateway was not a pleasant one, because in their haste to closing the gateway, lots of powerful energies where released causing the earth to open and swallow the temple and the crystal within it. The temple was abandoned to be forever forgotten beneath the earth, and what was left of the primordials carved this images and writings as warnings to whoever managed to found the temple, to not mess with the crystal energies.

Gerald was captivated by this story, he could certainly think about many scholars, who will be willing to spend a great deal for an opportunity to study such carvings, but he quickly disposed that sentiment, and started to ponder, if such powerful magical artifact does indeed exist, then that might explain about the unusually high concentration of vampires in one place, but that also give him a sense of worry, if this crystal is in the hand of the vampires, then they would certainly be up to no good.

The witcher decided that he had wasted enough time and hurried quickly into the entrails of the temple; after walking for a few minutes he found what was supposedly be the temple main atrium; there he found his quarry.

A female vampire in human disguise, dressed in a crimson silk dress, with beautiful yellow embroideries upon its surface, her face was a fine, delicate one, with deep blue eyes and a mouth that possessed some juicy crimson lips, her hair was of lustrous charcoal color she irradiated an air of confidence, and by the way she carried herself; The witcher guessed that she had some knowledge in the magical arts, she was probably a sorceress before she had turned into a vampire.

She was standing in front of an old broken stone altar, tinkering with some sort of artifact that irradiated an immense quantity of light. He could not see very well from his position what the artifact was; but the witcher suspected what it was.

He could not get closer without being spotted; the whole length of the atrium main floor was filled, with a mass of vampires, all of them were female in appearance, each one had attractive faces and a gorgeous naked figure that shimmered in the light that filtered from above and from the gleaming artifact, their ample busts exposed for everyone to see; Long silky hair of midnight color.

One could believe that the witcher was in some type of erotic fantasy, if it wasn't for the fact that all of them had a crimson liquid falling into their chests and body, from their mouths were long, sharp fangs like needles could be seen.

No doubt they were vampires too, all of them, serving as bodyguards for the one tinkering with the glowing artifact.

"Bruxas" The witcher muttered.

Bruxas; female vampires that can seduce and bend any man to their wills; the witcher knew well, not to fall for their charms, and he also had to be cautious about their agility and speed, for this vampiresses, where known also for their inhuman feats.

The seemingly leader of the bruxas, turn herself to address to his sister, revealing the artifact, that she had in her hands, the witcher took a glimpse of it and manage to recognize it.

It was a glowing crystal of the size of an open palm, of a beautiful yet unknown craftsmanship; the witcher realize, that it was indeed the same crystal that was shown in the temple's walls inscriptions.

"Soon my sisters, we will be able to leave these wretched intolerant lands against our kind, for others more pleasant, and look for brand-new hunting grounds, were we could enjoy ourselves without the interruption and hate of the lesser beings that inhabit this decaying world" said the vampiress to her midst.

The witcher was surprised, he now understand why there where so many vampires in one place, this was no normal gathering, it was an exodus, the vampires where trying to use the crystal to open a gate to a new world.

The witcher ponder in the implications of such a thing; he could let the vampires leave with that assuring the wellbeing of his world, but that would leave other worlds to fell prey to the vampiresses thirst.

Deciding that he could not allow other worlds to suffers for this one own problems; the witcher assume a passive stance, and started to focus, charging magical energy in his left hand, he then run at full speed towards the gathering of Bruxas.

He then released the accumulated magical energies in his hand; _Igni; _a burst of fire was released upfront from the witcher's hand, incinerating those who were in the impact, it then expanded itself into a heat wave, knocking down any bruxa that were in the wave pass.

The bruxas where startled they did not expected to be attacked in the heart of their own lair.

"So the cattle have sent an agent to disturb our journey" the main vampiress, acknowledged Geralt "wait…what the….? " The vampiress started to quickly inspect the witcher looks. "A witcher by the looks of it; Sisters quickly, kill this interloper so I can finish the ritual, he must not be allowed to interfere with the journey". At this statement all the bruxas charged towards the witcher position.

The witcher parried and dodged the incoming attacks, but he could not waste time dealing with the bruxas, he released quickly another heat weave, not so powerful as the last one but enough to knockdown the enemies in front of him, he then jumped over their position.

"It's too late now witcher, the gateway it's almost open, and me and my sisters will finally be rid off from your bothersome kind" stated the main vampiress with a triumphant look.

The witcher pull out one of his throwing knifes in midair and tossed it in the vampiress direction, the knife hit the crystal in full and knocked it out from, the vampiress hands.

The crystal hit the ground, and a pulsating energy started to accumulate within it, the crystal released a blinding light that covered all the corners of the temple atrium.

It took a while for the light to dissipate and when it did it, the crystal was nowhere to be seen.

"……..No, Noooooooo, it can't be; this was supposed to be the salvation of our race" scream the vampiress, falling in her knees.

"….mmmph… such a pity, I could have obtain a nice bit of coin for selling that trinket" said the witcher with a smug expression.

"You, it's all your fault, because of you we are now condemned to extinction; we shall rip your flesh, break your bones and suck the marrow out of them" spat the vampiress, with rage in her face.

"ohh, too bad and just when I was to say that we should spend some time to know each other better and become friends" stated the witcher sarcastically.

"**AAAAAAARGHH**; I've had enough of you, sisters make him pay dearly"

The witcher raised his sword and prepared himself for the battle ahead, but before the very enraged bruxas managed to get any closer to him, another flash of light appeared where the crystal had been; a strange tear of ligh**t** appeared from the flash and started to suck anything within its vicinity.

It started to attract the bruxas and the witcher within; The witcher tried to avoid get sucked by holding himself from a nearby pillar; despise his best efforts to hold; the witcher eventually could no longer maintain his hold an was sucked inside the tear.

The last thing he saw was being surrounded by light from all sides, and then everything turned into darkness and cold…….. And the scent of snow.

Nevertheless he had managed to save the villages that surrounded the Dragon Mountains, the villagers will tell tales, about the brave warrior who had to sacrifice his own life to end the vampire menace, eventually in time the story become legend and slowly started to be forgotten.

But the witcher had not perished, he had managed to survive the tear and found himself in a strange land full of marvels and perils.

But that's another story, for another time.

**Note: **pheww, finally I ended the prologue I think I overdid it a little, I get carried away with the writing hope it doesn't bother any of you, ohhh where does the witcher will end up arriving?. that's for me to know and for you to find out, it is a surprise after all; the witcher will give quite the impression to the people of azeroth, and what about the Bruxas did they survived the tear too?;… well yes they are undead, it's not like it will be harmful for their health the travel between worlds, woe for the denizens of azeroth to be exposed against a deadly new enemy. It's not like they had their own problems or something like that, right?

Here's a little quiz for all of ya, the idea and history of the crystal came from 3 different sources; can you discover each one of them? (don't know why i bother, one is so obvious).


	3. Chapter 1

**Author's note: **I know the next leader reunion never happened in the real WOW canon (or maybe it did? I haven't played WotLK yet nor Wow since I finished the BC), anyway, but this is MY fic (cept what it is mark in the disclaimer, which is practically everything) after all and I decided that it would be best for all the world's leaders to acknowledge Geralt's presence in one blow, rather than spend time and individuals chapters for each one of the leaders about how they take notice of the witcher; I don't think I have the strength to do that, maybe I'm just being lazy.

Remember I may end up missing or overlooking by mistake, some parts of the canon and in other situations I will not follow the canon at all.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own WoW nor The witcher, or anything that is copyrighted.

**Chapter 1: **The looming danger in a new world.

Her name was Jaina Proudmoore, she was a sorceress and powerful one too, belonging to one of the most powerful organization of magic users in the land of Azeroth; the Kirin Tor.

Lady Proudmoore ruled over the port city of Theramore, a city which she herself help found; with the help of her advisor lady Aegwyn, former Guardian of Tirisfal, she had been sucessfully in maintaining and resolving crisis in the past.

She was an attractive young woman, she had a pretty face with vibrant pure blue eyes like the clear waters of the sea, golden hairs of the color of the sun; her attire was composed of some kind of armored tunic; having some metal pauldrons protecting her shoulders, and a metal breast plaque of steel color to protect her chest, the upper part of her attire, shoulders and upper arms, where colored in a violet tone with gold embroidery, same as the section that covered her hips and thighs, the rest was colored of a pure white; the mid section of her body was unprotected, revealing her well-built abdomen and leaving her bellybutton exposed; she was also wearing a violet cape and hood over her vestments.

She carried a steel staff, with an emerald crystal in the shape of a spear blade in the tip.

She currently was in a temporary tent in the company of the most important leaders of the world factions; trying to mediate between them and avoid any unpleasant confrontation.

In one side were the leaders of the alliance, a collective of several of the most ancient, noble and brave species in the world; The Humans of Stormwind, the Dwarves of Khaz Modan, The Kaldorei or Night Elves of Darnassus, The Gnomes of Gnomeregan currently residing in Khaz Modan and finally but not least, the Draenei of the Exodar.

Their respective leaders where:

King Varian Wrynn, a man of strong, handsome yet hard features in his face, with and horizontal scar underneath his eyes that extended through all his face length; ha had charcoal hair that fell loosely from the front of his head and tied in a crude ponytail from the back.

He wearied a massive sturdy armor of sapphire blue and gold, with massive pauldrons that were carved to represent the heads of two fierce animals, his right one the head of a great eagle, the left one the head of a mighty lion.

The lion head carvings where also presents in others sections of his armor, one was serving the function of buckle for his belt; and other two for knees guards of his boots; he was also wearing some pants of a wine red, same color as his cape.

His hands where firmly closed upon the red hilt of a massive sword, the blade was composed by two steel pieces; the main one massive and of great length, the second not so big but still of a respected size about half the size of the other, the two steel pieces were joint together by a red glowing orb in the blade base.

Next was King Magni Bronzebeard, a dwarf with a prominent nose, and even more so prominent beard of the color of fire that was almost as big as his own body, tied in a long dreadlock, his hair was also long albeit not so much as his beard, just reaching his shoulders length.

He was completely encased in a massive steel armor, with beautiful dwarvish carvings in his surface, with red symbols painted here and there and between the joints of his armor; he also wore a small steel crown, more like a steel band, with a big ruby attached in the middle; and a long read cape upon his shoulders.

In his back where resting two steel hammers of the size of a man's head, one was covered with rune symbols, the other with golden dwarf's carvings; taking the form of a goat's head in each side of the hammer.

The next was High Priestess Tyrande Whisperwind, a night elf, a beautiful woman of violet skin and very long pointy ears, glowing eyes and hairs of cerulean color that carried several tree leaves of different tonalities.

She carried herself proudly wearing a white ceremonial dress of exquisite tailoring, with embroideries that represented a crescent moon, also with embeddings of sapphires; she wore upon her shoulders a deep blue cloak with feathered light pauldrons for protection.

In her back, she carried a Long bow of astonishing elven craftsmanship, it had a delicate look but it had the power to make arrows pierce the strongest of armors.

Next one was High Tinker Gelbin Mekkatorque, a gnome and old one with a welt build body despise his age, with a white silver moustache in his face, bald head, and eyes that were not seen because they were covered by some prominent tech goggles that shine gold.

He was encased in a golden armor with the symbol of a cog carved in the chest of a mechanical design; He had a golden shield with the same mechanical design that his armor.

In his right hand was a Mace that had a golden cog serving as a head, and a luminous bulb of light in the middle of it.

And the last of the alliance leaders, Divine Prophet Velen; he was a Draenei, a humanoid being of bluish skin with legs that ended in hoofs, a long tail, glowing eyes and a stretched brow, he was a very old ancient being, with a long white beard that reached his waist and tentacles in his chin that were visible through his beard.

He was wearing a long ceremonial white robe with red and purple embroideries also he wore red and gold long shoulder guards that joined in his chest and continued down his groin with glowing crystals embedded within it.

He carried a wooden staff with crystals floating around his diamond-shaped tip.

On the other side of the tent were the leaders of The Horde a collective of several warrior-mongrel shamanistic species and off-worlders, and the most misunderstood of all races; The Orcs of Durotar, the Trolls of the Dark Spear Tribe, The Taurens of Mulgore, The Undead Forsaken of Lordaeron and finally the Blood Elves of Quel' Thalas.

Their respective leaders where:

The Warchief Thrall; an Orc, a Green-skinned humanoid with a powerful and well-built musculature, and long fangs in his lower jaw, with hairs combed in long dreadlocks of an ebony color same as his ruff beard.

He was encased in a colossal metal armor of ebony and gold, with carvings all over his surface and spikes in his pauldrons.

He carried as weapon a massive stone hammer as big as the length of his forearm.

Thrall was accompanied by a "friend" of some sorts, a fellow orc and advisor, Garrosh Hellscream, Overlord of the warsong offensive, he was a red-skinned orc, with many physical similarities as thrall, except that he had a more harsh look in his face and no hair in his head except for a ponytail in the back with a very similar red tonality as his skin.

He was encased a red metal armor with massive pauldrons that had horns embedded in its surface.

He carried in his back two crude one-handed steel battleaxes with wooden hilts.

The next leader was Shadowhunter Vol'jin , a troll, a large three-fingered humanoid being of large limbs and slim body, light blue skin, long pointy ears and nose, a stretched face, large tusks and fiery red hair.

He wore a navy blue metal armor with pauldrons that were carved in the form of two scary skulls whose eyes had an unholy green glow.

He carried a two-bladed sword that seemed to sparkle with electricity in both of his blades.

Next was High Chieftain Cairne Bloodhoof, a Tauren; an old and wise one; a massive being Half-man, Half-bull, with an impressive physical built, horns upon his head, powerful backbone full of fur, and a beard combed in Dreadlocks.

He wore no armor, just some brown pants and leather forearms guards, but he carried two massive shamanistic wood totems in his back.

He carried in his hands a long and powerful halberd.

Next, The Banshee Queen, Sylvanas Windrunner, an Undead Elf woman, she still retain her beauty looks of her former life albeit now they were harsh and cold; the once gorgeous blonde color of her hairs where now faded taking a dusty pigmentation, his skin also had lost her previous tone and was now of a dusty blue tone; her eyes glowed in a dreary red for revenge, like all elves she had pointy long ears.

She wore a light metal armor, of faded violet and blue color, with elvish carvings in the arms, legs, boots and breastplate, the carvings in the pauldrons had the form of skulls with some white feathers falling from the sides, and she wore no armor in her well-built abdomen and elbows, leaving them exposed; she also carried a cape and cloak upon her shoulders of a strong faded violet color.

She carried an exquisite longbow of elven design in her back, along with a quill full of arrows.

And finally, Regent Lord Lor'themar Theron, a Blood Elf; a handsome man of long white hairs that fell from the sides of his head, and were tied in a high ponytail in the back, he had a green emerald color in his right eye, but no color in the left one, with a small scar that run over his left brow and eye.

He wore an elvish armor of red and gold, with a red cape over his shoulders and carried a fine elvish longsword over his hips.

They had gathered to try to reach an agreement about a joint assault upon the fortress of a powerful mutual enemy; Arthas Menethil; The Lich king, the ruler of the Undead Scourge, a blight that threatened to swept over the world tainting, killing and corrupting everything in his path. A serious threat indeed; but despite the looming danger, the leaders of the factions had not manage to reach an agreement; too much history between them, old bad blood that was not easy to forget.

They had set up a small tent that served as neutral ground; it was located in a small land extension that lay several leagues behind the bases of Fordragon Hold an alliance strong hold, and Kor'kron Vanguard an horde stronghold, these bases were set-ups from witch both faction intended to lay siege to Angrathar the wrathgate a massive portal with the shape of a large dreary helmet, that guarded the path towards Icecrown citadel, the seat of power of the lich kings In the frozen North lands of Northerend.

It was in reality the road through the valley surrounded by cliffs that led to the wrathgate.

Serving as bodyguards for both faction leaders where warriors, footmen, marksmen, paladins, crusaders, sentinels, fusiliers, warlocks, rangers, etc, compressed of each of the several species and factions that they represented, there were also members of the most elite soldiers of each faction; The 7th Legion for the alliance, and the Kor'kron guard for the horde as well as several members of others military groups; all of them were posted outside of the tent watching, and waiting in and uncomfortable silence towards the opposite members of their respective faction, for any hint of hostility; while in the sky two massive airships were flying above the encampment .

The first one, belonging the alliance side, The Skybreaker , a massive hull of a battleship, with powerful propelled engines on each side to maintain the ship in the air, it also had many cannons on the side and numerous batteries in the front and rear, a massive steel eagle head in the bow and a massive bomb residing in the lowest deck.

The other one, belonging to the horde, Orgrim's Hammer, another great hull of a battleship, this one was suspended in the air by using two large balloons on either side, with a large metal catwalk linking them together, just like his alliance counterpart it had a great numbers of cannons and batteries installed for battle and siege maneuvers, it had an enormous main cannon in the front that poked out from the mouth of a massive stone wolf head in the bow.

Among the Faction Leaders were also their most trusted advisors and generals.

In the Alliance side were men like; Highlord Bolvar Fordragon, A veteran alliance soldier and the appointed leader of the assault against the lich king, a man with features that show experience in his face, with brown hairs that fell in a cascade from his head down to his neck, and a well kept beard that covered his face.

He was encased in a metal armor of gold and blue, with the lion of stormwind enbeded in his chest.

He carried a shield with the symbol of Stormwind embedded and a great blade with a golden hilt.

Also present was Highlord Supreme Commander of the Argent Crusade; Tirion Fordring, an old man of great military prowess, a veteran hero of the second war, he had a kind yet strong face, with white hairs that fell from his head and a white beard in his face.

He was encased in a metal armor of gold and blue, with massive golden pauldrons and a blue cape over his shoulders same as the blue mantle that was over his armor.

He was the wielder of a unique weapon; The Ashbringer, a holy weapon previously corrupted now purified; the hilt was a large golden one, the blade massive as it was covered in runes, it had a "dent" in its surface where a great golden orb lay floating.

Next to him was Highlord of the Ebon Blade; Darion Mograine, a death knight, once a man now an undead elite warrior that rebelled against his former master, the lich king.

He did not shown any of his physical features, because he was totally encased in a wine red metal armor, with spikes in its pauldrons and glowing skulls carvings, he wore upon his head a horned helmet that covered all the aspects of his face, and a black cape upon his shoulders.

He carried a dreary visage longsword, which had no tip edge at all; the sword was separated in two in the tip with a glowing green mist floating in the middle of its opened space.

Next to lady Proudmoore was her chamberlain Lady Magna Aegwynn, she was a very old woman but very well-preserved for her age, she had a kind face that reflected wisdom and a very long white-gray hair with 2 big hair-clips with a red jewel embedded in each one.

She wore a fine purple robe, with red embroideries that matched her red gloves and carried a long wooden staff in her right hand.

And finally the Leader of the mages association of the Kirin Thor, Archmage Rhonin, he was a red-headed man with long well-kept hair, and a well-kept beard.

He was encased in a violet metal armor of an arcane design, with the symbol of an eye embedded in the chest and belt; he also wore a cape of violet and gold with the same eye symbol in it.

He carried a massive staff that had a tip that could be used as a blunt weapon.

From the Horde side where present the High Overlord of the Kor'kron guard and Chief Advisor to Garrosh Hellsrceam; Varok Saurfang alongside with his son the commander of the Kor'kron Vanguard Dranosh Saurfang.

Both father and son were very lookalike; the only difference was that Varok had the commonly green-skin tone common in the orcs, but his son had a brown-skin tone, more commonly in the orcs that reside in the region of Outland.

Both were highly skilled warriors; the father a veteran from the three major conflicts in the history of Azeroth; the son having inherit many of his father traits make him a well versed combatant too, albeit a little rash one.

Dranosh was wearing his father armor and axe.

The armor was massive made of black and gold metal covered by a red mantle with the symbol of the horde embedded in the middle; the massive pauldrons of his armor had horns embedded within it.

The axe was a Big Double-bladed battle axe with a skull carved in the middle of the blades.

The older of the Saurfangs was wearing another black armor, with a red mantle, but he also wore a horned red helmet his long white hairs were seemed falling through it, he carried a small double-bladed battle axe.

All of them had been arguing for several hours now, little was what they really manage to accomplish, the day slowly and tediously passed until the stars shone bright in the sky.

"ugh…….. This so infuriating, I don't know why I keep trying to make a union between the factions" said lady Proudmoore with a sigh addressing to her Chamberlain "the only thing that it seem we all agree, is in disagreeing with each other".

"That maybe true, child but you know what they said, if you keep trying you might eventually get what you want" said Aegwynn with a sympathetic look.

Jaina gave a slight smile to her chamberlain "yep, maybe; I just wish that it shouldn't be so damn infuriating, why can't we have a break from all this?; once, just for once I would like to see that everybody agreed in something that isn't related to hacking each other to death"

Jaina sink down in her chair, rubbing her temple, a few feet to her side, King Varyan was having a heated discussion with Garrosh Hellscream.

"I hope for your own sake orc; that your troops will be there to lend us support, when we charge into the gates of Icecrown" referred Varyan towards Garrosh with an infuriated look in his face.

"Bah, why should we be trailing behind you weaklings? When it is obvious that WE can pull those damn gates down, without your interference; it would be faster and we wouldn't even break a sweat" Snorted Garrosh in Varyan's face.

Warchief Thrall feeling the first's symptoms of an incoming headache retorted "Calm down Garrosh you're not helping; and this pitiful insult's contest will not give us the answer to our problems".

"The answer is quite simple Thrall, we march towards the Wrathgate and tear it down with the great might of the Horde" boasted Garrosh.

"And how such a BRILLIANT strategy will succeed? We barely have enough manpower as it is to defend our own footholds, let alone to lay siege to Icecrown; how are we going to tear down the gates without enough siege weapons and supplies? I will not let you waste our soldiers' lives in such a petulant and irresponsible manner Hellscream" replied angrily Varok Saurfang .

"Bah, it will be enough and it will succeed, just a handful of our soldiers are enough to beat the majority of the squeamish forces of this alliance dogs" replied Garrosh despitefully glaring daggers toward Varyan; at this statement most of the alliance leaders erupted in an uproar followed by others of same magnitude from the horde leaders.

The tension in the air was visibly palpable it would seemed that the air was charged with the angry replies of the factions leaders, in fact it truly was, small sparkles were starting to appear around the great table where the leaders where, sparkles that where slowly been acknowledge by the factions leaders.

The intensity of the sparkles escalated gradually until all the leaders were forced to keep silence, they then tried to figure out the events unfolding around them.

Suddenly a bright flash of light appeared in the middle of the room blinding everyone inside, no one was able to utter a word until the flash died out revealing a crystal of sizable length in the middle of the table gleaming with a bright white light.

"What…in...the…light?" muttered Varyan "…How….How did this…this..Crystal appeared in the middle of the room?"

"I don't know but I believe this is an artifact of great power" answered Jaina glancing with a cautious look toward the crystal.

"Yes it is I can feel a great deal of energy emanating from within it" Added Aegwyn with a curious look.

"A great deal you said? Maybe we shall see if we can find a use to it?" replied Sylvanas with enlightened red eyes.

"No… it would be irresponsible form our part to do such without previous knowledge of this crystal capacity". Stated archmage Rhonin.

"Bah, what good use could this trinket be to us? It obviously does nothing but shine with that pitiful light." Said Garrosh glancing towards the object.

"Don't touch it Garrosh we don't know what it might do?" addressed Thrall towards his friend.

"What? There is no need for overreacting." Said Garrosh while poking the crystal with his finger; while the rest of the leaders stared with anxious looks in their faces.

"DAMN IT Garrosh, stop poking that thing!!" Yelled Thrall.

"Argh, why are you so angry about? This trinket is useless as a ………." But the words died in his lips as the crystal pulsated once more with energy; glowing with renew strength and tossing Garrosh towards the other side of the room.

The crystal expelled once more great amounts of blinding white light towards all the corners of the tent, "Fel, I don't like this any bit, we have to do something" yelled Jaina covering her eyes with her robe.

Warchief Thrall strode forwards covering his eyes with his forearm; he grabbed the crystal with his free hand which was engulfed in white flames the moment he took the crystal. "Goddamnit Garrosh, I told you to leave the crystal alone" Thrall turn himself towards the tent exit, and tossed the gleaming crystal into the darkness and cold outside.

A blinding explosion of light ensued after the crystal touched ground blinding the troops that were gathered outside; for a few moments' very dreaded laughters were heard, from the crystal direction.

"Elune save us" staded Lady tyrande while covering her face.

After a few moments, the light started to fade away and Jaina ran outside to check what had transpired followed quickly by the others leaders, and a few moments after the troops when they realize that their lords were on the move.

Jaina stopped to stare on the crystal remains that lay shattered in the snow and behind them was a man lying down in the snow, with pale skin and white hair as the snow in which he was lying, wearing a black leather armor with a chainmail underneath, and wide leather straps around his torso.

Jaina wondered who this man was, when she realized that he was starting to stir, she manage to take a glimpse his face taking notice of the large scar in the left side of his face that ran through his eye; she just stood there watching him move.

She didn't know that this man's name was Geralt of Rivia, a Witcher of great renown.

But that's another story; for another time.

**Note:** And so the plot thickens. Hope you like my descriptions of the leaders, hope that I did it well; I didn't find the correct words to designate some of their vestments, especially that robe-like thing that some leaders wear over their armors, I don't know if the term "mantle" is an appropriate designation; also that space in the ashbringer where the orb is located I don't know if the word "dent" is a correct way to describe it.


	4. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer:** I don't own nothing.

Chapter 2: The first impressions are always the most important ones.

His name was Geralt of Rivia; he was a Witcher, a professional monster slayer for hire.

The witcher found himself lying down with his face buried in snow; he slowly started to rise, felling dizziness and weariness.

He felt the grip of his silver sword hilt in his right hand, and used the sword to support himself a little, he started to shake his head, and coughed really loud and strong several times "ugh…Damn, I haven't felt so tired and drained since I partake in that "ménage-à-quatre" with the queen of the night and her concubines…. Oh; my head" said the witcher while trying to overcome his dizziness.

The witcher raised his head for a moment and tried to survey his surroundings; he acknowledge being in the middle of a snowy road surrounded by cliffs; "mmmph…. Now where is here? And where is the……?"

"Did he just said ménage-a-quatre" asked king Varyan with wide eyes.

the witcher took notice of the large number of assembled people gathered and staring back at him, many pointing arrows or keeping swords raised towards him, there were several humanoids beings that he didn't recognize; but he could clearly tell that there where humans, elves, dwarves and gnomes among them; which for him that was unusual, because in the Northern Kingdoms there is a lot of racial tension between this species and the humans; what really caught his attention was a pretty young human lady with golden hairs and sapphire blue eyes in a violet cloak staring at him which such a curious and intense gaze.

The witcher kept his golden eyes locked upon the young lady; he could tell that she had taking notice of his stare because of the way she started to shift her body in an anxious form.

The witcher took notice and said "mmmph locals….pretty locals it seems" while keeping his gaze towards the cloaked lady, who blushed a little.

The Witcher started to stand up, receiving anxious looks from the locals, he heard the sound of bows stringing; that's when he took notice of the shards of the broken crystal in the snow; the witcher stretched his arm and grab a few shards, with the intention of examine them.

"mmmph; looks like I'm going to be stranded here for a while, seems I will have to consider my payment forfeit, just great" stated the witcher a little irritated.

……………….

The word "payment" make king Varyan feel uneasy, he started to consider that this man was an assassin send to kill him and the rest of the leaders, he kept one of his hands around his sword hilt and yelled towards the stranger."You stranger, who are you and what are your intentions to be here"

………………

The witcher turned his gaze toward a man with a horizontal scar in his face, encased in the biggest armor he had ever seen, _"That's such ridiculously big size for an armor , how can he even move inside that thing" _the witcher though; he sighed, leaving the shards back into the ground, he stand up and address toward the man.

"First of all, it's impolite to ask someone name without introducing yourself first, second….. Where exactly is here" said the witcher while pointing to his surroundings.

"I'm King Varyan Wrynn of Stormwind; now answer my question stranger" retorted the man infuriated.

The witcher was unimpressed by this man display, he simply crossed his arms and rest his chin in one hand "A King eh, well that would explain the ridiculous size of that armor you are wearing, seriously I know armors are suppose to protect oneself from harm, but I think you overdid it a little, honestly, if you are so afraid of getting hurt, then why bother in the first place?" stated the witcher with a grin.

"This is pointless; he's probably an agent of the lich king, we should kill him where he stands" said a humanoid being with red skin and long teeth in his lower jaw.

"No Garrosh; he doesn't seem to know where he is or any one of us for that matter, it's obviously that he came out of that crystal, we should try to discover first all the facts before taking a decision" stated a similar being except that this one had green-skin

"And from where did that crystal came, Thrall; for all we knew it could have been sent by the lich king itself" retorted Garrosh.

"I doubt it, the lich king tends to use terror, fear and corruption as weapons, this not seem to be his work, I don't sense the presence of the scourge; well I do, because we are close to the wrathgate, but not in this one" said an old but apparently wise bearded man with white hairs, encased in a golden armor.

"Scourge you said? Does that had something to do with this sense of dread, that I feel coming from all around me" asked the witcher to the old man.

"You can feel it?" asked the old man with surprise in his features.

"I can smell it?" The witcher then took 2 long breaths through his nose: Sniff: :Sniff: "Here…. The smell of death around here is big; but there is something else, a scent in the air that I recognize" stated the witcher while pacing around smelling the air.

"What is this scent you speak of?" Demanded King Varyan.

The witcher turned his back toward the assembled crowd; he lifted his gaze towards the surrounding cliffs, and raised his silver sword before answering "…………..My quarry"

King Varyan reacted poorly at this statement "I knew it; you must be an assassin, trooper quickly, fire at him" ordered Varyan to a young marksman standing a few paces next to him.

"No Varyan; wait" yelled the cloaked young woman, trying to stop king Varyan.

Alas, it was for naught, for the soldiers were loyal to their king, the marksman released his arrow, and it was sent flying towards the witcher direction.

**Tchhhhwap, **this clear sound was heard, and then everybody was silent, for the witcher had caught the arrow with his left hand, while still having his back turned toward the crowd, scanning the cliffs above him.

"wha…. What?" muttered the young woman.

King Varyan, was not pleased "troops; fire at will" he ordered to his men assembled.

"Varyan that's quite enough" addressed another bearded man of brown hairs encased in a metal blue armor; he looked like an experienced warrior.

All the alliance archers and marksmen released their arrows, a rain of projectiles was sent towards the witcher; the horde troops were still aiming at him, but they made no signs to join in the alliance attack, their warchief had told them not to.

The witcher turned himself facing the assembled crowd again; he crossed his arms in a high defense stance and started to swing his sword to deflect the incoming projectiles, he deflected every arrow that represented a danger to him, with such a speed and finesse that leave many with their jaws opened, impressed with the amazing display of skill from the witcher.

The Witcher parried, blocked and dodged, a great number of projectiles, swinging his sword with a great speed, that it was just a blur for his spectators, he also blocked several incoming projectiles using the steel guards in his forearms, he didn't stayed in one placed either, moving and dodging to several sides to avoid being hit, he successfully managed to deflect every single projectiles until all of them were in the ground.

The witcher relaxed his stance and lowered his sword, sighing briefly, when suddenly a thunderous boom reached his ears, catching him by surprise, he felt a sudden pain and explosion in his chest that propelled him backwards and knocked him down in the snow.

A smoking fire arm in the hands of an armored dwarf was the source of the attack.

"Well done soldier, you got him" congratulated king Varyan with a broad smile in his face.

"Varyan, why did you do it? Why did you have to order an attack on him? He didn't do anything to threaten us; we didn't even fully question him before you rashly acted" yelled the cloaked young woman.

"I did the only rational thing that someone in my position would do; he could had been an assassin, Fel he certainly moved like one, you saw him deflecting all that hail of arrows, he was dangerous" replied angrily King Varyan.

"But he didn't make any move of aggression towards us; you had no right to….."

"Ahem, sorry for interrupting, youngsters; but I think he's still moving" said the dwarven king.

……………………..

The Witcher slowly raised up back on his feet, he touch his chest with one hand, only to find a nasty bleeding hole in it, leaving his hand soaked in his blood; the witcher used his hand to remove a lead slug that was inside his wound, tossing it into the ground, he then breathed slowly while taking a calm stance, closing his eyes, he relaxed a little, letting his body mend and close his wound, when he open his eyes again he found, surprised and awed stares from the people that not a few moments ago were firing at him.

…………………….

Jaina was shocked, this man had received an impact from a firearm in the chest and he was still alive, not only that, but the wound in his chest was healing, bending, mending and sucking the blood back into his body, slowly but surely the wound was closing itself.

She suddenly heard the man addressing to her and the rest of the people assembled.

"Would you mind? I'm trying to track over here and I can't do it with your constant interruptions"

Jaina could see that Varyan was pissed; she put a hand over his shoulder and gave him a "Don't do anything stupid" stare.

The man clad in black leather had already turned his back again to them, pacing and staring towards the cliffs while smelling the air.

…………………….

The witcher was a little annoyed with the aggression of this people, but he had no time to deal with them, he had a task to fulfill, even thought there was no chance that he was going to receive his payment, he was still determined to fulfill it; realizing that the assembled crowd was not going to continue with their aggression, the witcher turned to once more try to track his quarry.

He smelled the air trying to discern where his quarry had taked refugee, he was certain that the Bruxas were hiding among the cliffs above, but where exactly he could not tell, the smell of dread and death that filled his surroundings was blocking his efforts, he had to focus himself in order to find the trace.

The witcher keep pacing among the cliff edge, until he finally decided to stop, he smiled lightly and yelled towards the cliff. "C'mon I know you are there, come out so we can have a little chat, and have fun, it's impolite to make someone wait this way" he received no answer, except the whistling of the wind, and curious looks from the people behind him.

The witcher sighed "well if you don't want to come out and play…" his left hand started to glow fire red, charging the sign of _Igni_, "then I will have to make you" The witcher released the energy in his hand causing a fiery explosion that became an expanding heatweave, into a section of the cliffs above, this action cause many of the people behind him to tense and once again they aim their arrows and firearms toward him with the intention of firing a second volley of arrows toward him.

Their efforts were stopped cold when high-pitched screams pierced the air; "_**RAAARGHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!**_"

From the cold and smoke the alliance and horde forces saw naked female figures appear practically from nowhere; many male soldiers were aroused at the sight of these women; but they restrain themselves when they saw what appeared to be blood coming out from their mouths falling into their chest; when the smoke faded, they were surprised when they realized that there were dozens and dozens and dozens of this naked women in the middle of the valley road.

They saw a beautiful woman in a crimson dress in the front of these women; she had a very dreary furious look in her face, which inspired fear in their hearts like a demon that came out of their worst nightmares.

"_**YOU ARE THE MOST UNPLESEANT VERMIN THAT I HAD EVER THE DIRE LUCK TO DEALT WITH; WITCHER".**_

Said the woman in a terrible cold voice that sends chills, down the spine of the people gathered.

"_**I THOGHT ME AND MY SISTERS HAD GOTTEN RID OFF YOU, WHEN THE CRYSTAL EXPLOTED, SENDING US HERE; BUT IT SEEMS YOU WERE DRAG HERE TOO AS BAGGAGE"**_

The woman features softened and acquired a more pleasant look before continuing. "No matter, I will make sure to deal with you soon enough".

The woman acknowledge the presence of the people gathered and said with a lewd voice "Ohh, it seems you have found some friends, maybe they would want to join us and play a little; my sisters and I have not felt the touch of a man for quite a while and we are most desiring for such pleasure once more, I guarantee they won't be disappointment"

The women started to sway their hips and bodies in luscious movements, captivating many of the males in the audience, the women among the crowd where not amused, rather they were disgusted by the shameless way that this women were using to seduce the males.

The witcher turned his head toward the assembled people, and address them "Easy there boys, do not let this girls charms cloud your minds, I assure you there is a price that none of you would like to paid, if you fall for their hollow promises it will only end in disaster" Then the witcher pull out one of his knifes before continuing "allow me to show you".

The witcher tossed his knife which impacted right in the middle of one of the women head, sending it backwards, but without any movement from the rest of her body; she then repositioned her head in her previous position, staring vilely towards the witcher with a furious look, showing her glowing red eyes, and long, long and sharp fangs; she pulled the knife out of her head and made a high-pitched roar towards her aggressor.

That was enough to wake the men out of their daze, and raise their weapons again towards the women; the vampiress leader was not happy.

"Ugh, again you meddle in our affairs, fine if this how it's going to be; sisters make sure to drink every single drop of blood from his body" referred the vampiress towards her kin.

The women shown their true colors, their fangs sharpened and stretched in long needles, their mouths too stretched longer than humanly possible, and their nails to stretch in long razor-sharp claws; roaring and screaming in high-pitched tones.

The gathered members of both factions where freaked out at the sight of such a horrid change, their leaders wasted no time and gave the order to attack the vampiresses.

"Dear Light; quickly troops send those horrid fiends back to the dark pit where they came from" yelled King Varyan.

"Same goes for all of you, show them the might of the Horde" address Warchief Thrall towards his forces.

A massive volley of arrows, Javelins, throwing axes and bullets, was sent towards the vampiress; The witcher being in the middle used his great physical abilities to make a very High jump in order to avoid the incoming projectiles landing gracefully after the volley have passed.

The volley strike in full force amidst the vampiresses numbers, arrows pierced their bodies, javelins and axes get stuck in them, and bullets blew chunks of flesh out of them.

But not a single of the vampiresses fell; they just kept standing there with their bodies mutilated, and to the horror of the gathered forces they started to laugh in a dreary voice.

"_**MHAHAHAHAHA, QUITE AMUSING IS TO WITNESS YOUR FEEBLE ATTEMPTS TO STRIKE US DOWN" **_yelled the leading vampiress.

The vampiresses started to regenerate, their holes in their bodies closed, and any lost limbs grow back, their remove all of the projectiles from their bodies, and looked towards the assembled forces with wicked smiles.

The witcher stand unimpressed, he address toward the crowd and said "It's useless, normal weapons can't hurt them, only silver or magic, stay back while I deal with them, they are my quarry after all".

King Varyan was unable to speak; to shocked he was, that he just was able to make a hesitant nod towards the witcher along with several of the others leaders; The witcher turned his gaze back to the vampiresses and pulled a vial out from one of his pockets, with a strong green liquid inside, Blizzard, a mix that will boost his reflexes and reaction time for a brief time.

The witcher drank his contents, and his body started to shake, the nerves of his body become easily visible, twitching violently for a brief seconds before settling down again, that action gave him bewilder looks from the assembled people, that started to get even more anxious.

"Well; time to begin with this dance" said the witcher taking a defensive stance.

"Indeed" retorted the leading vampiress.

3 of the vampiresses grinned and then disappeared in a blur, only to reappear above the witcher in less than a second; the witcher blocked the incoming attacks but the vampiresses disappeared again, one reappeared behind the witcher, he blocked the attack by position his sword behind his shoulders; another reappeared ducked right in front of him, she lunged towards him with the intention of disembowel him, but he retaliated with a knee kick to her face; the last one reappeared on his left side, she launched an attack with her claws buy before her attack could reach home, the witcher just the same like the vampiresses disappeared in a blur.

The Bruxa just swing the air where the witcher use to be, she tried to locate him by looking her surroundings, suddenly she felt a piercing pain in her stomach, she looked down only to see the tip of a silver sword poking out from her stomach, then the tip moved upwards cutting in two the flesh of the vampiress until it came out through her right shoulder, all this while the vampiress screamed in a howled and loud tone.

The body fell up front to reveal the witcher standing, with his sword lifted upwards soaked in blood; the other 2 vampiresses were enraged for the dead of their sister and launched themselves once more toward the witcher, the witcher merely sidestepped the attack of the closest one and took the opportunity to pierce her heart with his sword, he quickly turned around and released her body, tossing it towards the other Bruxa who fell into the ground with her sister's body on top of her; The witcher jumped towards her and landed sinking his sword in the middle of the vampiress head.

The factions forces were awed, they have never seen someone moving so fast with such finesse, the witcher took a long breath, shrugged his shoulders and assume a defensive stance; The vampiresses were not pleased this time all of them except their leader, attacked Geralt at the same time trying to overwhelm him with mere numbers.

The witcher didn't even flinch, he knew it was the same situation that he had endure while fighting those Fleders and Garkains, this vampiresses will eventually cut through his defenses, nothing to worry about, because the black blood was still in effect, but he had to make sure to thin their numbers before getting bitten, he didn't want to spoil the surprise.

The witcher charged towards his attackers, this time he wasn't going to restraint himself, he was going all out, he cut in half the first 2 Bruxas that were in front of him, and was already fighting his way among their numbers, attacking with wide arcs, twirling his sword for faster attacks, and defending himself or dodging when the situation required it.

He started to receive some cuts and gashes, he had killed several of his enemies but they were still more, he needed a breather, so he charged his left hand with energy, small winds of air start to twirl around his hand; a great number of vampiresses was upon him so he quickly released the energy; _Aard, _a massive thrust of telekinetic energy hit the vampiresses right in their faces, blowing them backwards several feet, the witcher took the opportunity to roll towards the cliffs base and position his back in it in a prone position.

The vampiresses quickly recover from the attack and lunged once more toward him, but this time he manage to defend himself more easily, because he had his back on the rocks; the first one to get close to him was ran trough with his sword, he tossed the body back to the other incoming vampiresses making some of them trip, that were easily dispatched, he kept slashing his attackers while defending himself with little difficulty, after a few moments he realize he had to change of position because the bodies of his slay enemies were starting to pile up, threatening with getting him trapped.

He charged once more his left hand with the sign of _Igni_, Releasing the expanding heatwave amidst his enemies, incinerating several of them, he jumped high to change his position and avoid being hit, but was intercepted by the vampiress leader in midair, who punch him with great force and send him plummeting towards the ground; there the rest of the vampiress kin waste no time and fell on top of their prey, sinking their long fangs in his flesh.

The vampiress leader grinned in satisfaction; the witcher was finally killed at the hands of her sisters, now she felt they were truly free to do what they pleased.

Jaina watched in horror at how this demonic women, savagely bite and tear the man body, she couldn't keep her gaze at that sight, and tilted her head to one side to avoid seeing such a brutal act.

Even Varyan was disgusted, yes he had ordered this man to be killed, but not in such a gruesome manner, he didn't find any satisfaction in watching him fall.

The rest of the leaders were too appealed they didn't know or trust this man, but no one deserves such a horrible death at the hands of such savage and dreary beings.

They were all surprised when they heard, the man laughter coming from where he was being eaten, "Sorry to disappoint you, but I have a little surprise to you, you see I'm quite uneatable for your kind".

The Bruxas attacking him suddenly backed away from him, their bodies tremble and jerked uncontrollably, while vomiting great amount of black colored blood, they fell to the ground their bodies still suffering from the spasms until settling in without making any single other move.

All were speechless, with their eyes wide open, this man was still alive after such brutal attack not only that but he was toxic for those who tried to feed from him.

The vampiress leader was not pleased in fact she was enraged, she did not said nothing, rather she roared very loudly and very scary, the rest of her kin soon did the same; the witcher was amused and said. "Ohhhh, I didn't realize I hurt your feelings, I didn't even know that you, the denizens of the undead still cared for such stuff".

This caught the attention of lord Fordring "Undead?.... this are undead beings?" he inquired to the witcher.

"Well yeah, vampires are undead beings who drink the blood of others to sustain their own vampiric unlife" retorted casually the witcher as if it was a normal thing "…….. Why do you ask?"

"Paladins, soldiers of the Argent Crusade, rally on me, make the judgment of the light fall upon these wretched undead beings; CHAAAAAAARGE" Yelled lord Fordring rallying the paladins on a charge towards the mass off vampiress.

Rays of holy light fell upon the vampiresses burning them at the first touch, before they were able to retaliate, the paladins clashed among their midst; using their holy powers and hammers to strike them down.

Lord Fordring used The Ashbringer to strike one of the Bruxas down, when his sword made contact with the vampiress, this one was utterly destroyed by the holy power of the Ashbringer.

The Witcher was slightly impressed, he didn't imagine that the people of this world had the means to dealt with monsters, least of all holy ones, he quickly get rid of this thoughts and raised his sword to block the attack of a Bruxa, who though that it could catch him with his guard down; he cut her in half to show her, how wrong she was.

The paladins were quite effective against the vampiresses but the ferocity of these last ones was something that they had not seen before; the Bruxas ripped men out of their armors with their bare claws, or tore great chunks of flesh out of them with their mouths.

But the paladins where making short work of the Bruxas despite their ferocity, the hammers of the paladins where able of pummel down the Bruxas with ease, and their holy spells burned and scorch them, causing them great pain.

The vampiress leader was outraged, this people was slaying her sisters with easy, she could not let their journey to end like this, dead in a strange land against beings who powers of the wretched light; it was all the witcher's fault she had to make him pain, she dodge the hammer of and incoming Draenei paladin, and then retaliated by sinking her claws underneath his ribs, and tossing him away from her; She had to kill the witcher; she had to make him pay for their suffering.

The vampiress numbers where decreasing dramatically, Lord Fordring realize, the vampiresses had injured several of his paladins, and killed some others, but thanks the help of the black clad stranger this losses were kept to a minimum; he maimed or killed these undead beings with ease and skill, and his magics managed to keep a great number of them at bay, allowing his paladins to finish them off.

Lord Fordring stopped his advances, and raised his sword offering a prayer to the light, a rain of sparks of light fell upon the battlefield, and those that had fallen in battle raised anew to continue with their endeavors, behind the paladins forces, groups of priests were offering prayers and releasing gleams of light, that renew the spirit and granted respite to those who were touched by them.

The witcher felt his energies restored, the spells of light that this people were making seemed to restore the spirits and vitality of the living, while at the same time hurting and burning the undead, he continued his attacks with renowned vigor and after a few minutes of fighting the only one that was left of the vampiresses was their leader surrounded by the paladins forces, the rest were crushed or dead in the ground.

She cursed her luck, to be surrounded by religious dumb-asses warriors; she had the intention to show them why no one dares to cross her.

Lord Fordring was about to order his forces to strike this undead abomination down when he felt someone putting a hand in his left pauldron, he turned to see the stranger of white skin and hair looking at him.

"This one is mine, if you kindly?" Lord Fordring nodded and allowed the man to pass, he gave instructions to his men to withdraw, and give to the witcher and the vampiress enough space for their confrontation.

The witcher, stood in front of his quarry, golden eyes like the sun locked in a stare contest against fiery red ruby eyes; The vampiress lunged towards the witcher, he immediately stepped aside and took the opportunity to strike at her, but she intercepted the sword and use his own momentum to toss him several feet along with his sword, the witcher effortlessly landed gracefully on his feet.

He immediately launched another charge towards the vampiress; so fast he was, that he rammed his sword trough her abdomen, but the vampires retaliated with a vicious kick to his chest that send him backwards, but he managed to stay on his feet; The witcher shrugged and reposition himself for another charge.

The vampiress yelled; "**THAT DOES IT, I HAD ENOUGH OF YOU, I WILL BE THE LAST THING YOU SEE BEFORE DYING, YOU SHOULD FEEL HONORED THAT I WILL ALLOW YOU TO GAZE UPON MY TRUE FORM.**"

The vampiress started to transform, removing her disguise and showing her true form: Her hairs turned off a fiery red as his eyes, her nails stretched long becoming razor-sharped claws, her fangs became long pointy needles, red-blooded scales appeared on her legs, neck bone and abdomen, these scales also appeared and covered the totality of her arms; she was an Alp, a higher and powerful vampire; she mocked the witcher, with growls and aggressive motions, trying to lure him into attacking her.

But the witcher kept his temper; he did not rushed into a front attack that will leave him exposed against the greater speed of his opponent, he simple paced around her, sword in hand analyzing his opponent; the witcher felt a sensation in his bones, yes it was the same sensation he has felt every night at midnight since he partake in the trial of herbs, the predator sense, from midnight until dawn the features of the wolf within him, are exteriorized giving him increased reflexes and aggressiveness; even though he was sure that, there was still enough sunlight back when he was sucked in that crystal, but here in this place it seems he had arrived late in the dead of night.

The wolfish features in his face became more prominent and his eyes glowed brighter than ever, like two golden stars in the blackness of the void, the witcher growled like a wild animal and shown his white snowy teeth, slightly sharpened due to the change.

He and the vampiress stared and paced around each other like two beasts locked in a mortal confrontation, each one waiting for the right moment to launch what could be define as a decisive and lethal attack while taunting and trying to lure the other to commit an early attack.

The people watching them were both awed and fearful at the same time, many were tense waiting to see who will come out victorious, and how will them deal with the winner.

Finally the vampiress made the first movement lunging forwards while launching a swipe with her claws, the witcher rolled away and plunged his sword in her flank, but the vampiress quickly turned in a impossible speed and rammed her claws in his face, leaving nasty cuts in his face and neck; she the grab him, pummeled him in the ground and tossed him far away from her.

The witcher again, touched ground with his feet first, having his body in a bending position, he started to charge the sign of _Igni_ again, but before anyone could blink, the Alp was already upon him again, he had to once more roll to a side to avoid her attack which crashed hard in the ground, cracking the earth beneath and making the Alp to viciously snarl; the witcher jumped towards her and sank his sword in the middle of her chest; but the vampiress was still not dead, she tried to take a bite on him with her fangs, even though the black blood was still in effect, he knew that such vicious attack at so close range will leave him with a very deep and lethal wound; so he quickly released the charged sign in his hand, right into the vampiress face that was thrown backwards because of the impact force, allowing him to distance himself from her.

But the witcher had no time to rest, the vampiress quickly recovered herself and charged once more towards him, with the face horribly scarred and burned, with murder in her eyes while making a dreary high-pitched scream; the witcher positioned himself and launched a single vertical slash forward at an incredible speed, he passed through the vampiress and stopped several feet behind her before turning and assuming a defense stance towards her.

The Alp stooped too, seemingly dumbfounded as to how the witcher managed to pass her, without she noticing it, she turned around and face the witcher once more but before she could do anything, she notice a fine line in the middle of her body that ran through all her height length, seemingly marking the point where his body could be separated in two identical halves; she was terrified when she saw that the line started to bleed, in that moment she quickly realized what the witcher had done.

"No….." was all she could whisper before her body split open in two, making a splashing noise, before both halves fell to the ground with a thump; the witcher lowered his sword, sighing, he shrugged his shoulders a little to diminish the strain of his body, his wounds were healing already so he cleansed and sheathed his sword without uttering a word, and turned himself towards the gathered crowd, only to find himself being stared astonished faces with wide eyes and open mouths; that make him feel a little bothered.

…………………………

King Varyan was dumbfounded, he could barely believe what had just happened, those horrific demonic undead women and this man with the wolf visage, utterly and effectively killing them all with such speed and elegance, he could see the same look of awe in the face of Jaina and the other leaders; even Garrosh was seemingly impress by this man feats.

He tried to formulate his words to assess the situation; but he could only managed to make hesitant questions "Who…..Who or..What are you?" he barely said towards the black claded man, who just simply stared at him with an expressionless blood stained face, that had big nasty wounds that were slowly closing and golden eyes that gleamed through the blood stain before answering.

"My name is Geralt of Rivia and I, am a Witcher"

King Varyan was unable to respond him; he tried to process this man answer without success; he had never heard of what this man was speaking of, but he was sure that this summit had just got more complicated.

But that's another story for another time.


	5. Chapter 3

**Author's note**: Now I know, that you want to know if the witcher, being the ladiesman he is will have "casual" encounters with the ladies of WoW, the answer is yes of course he will, I had been planning that since I started to write this fic, with known figures and also some OC's I have in mind, he may even have a serious relationship; but before anybody starts to cheers, I will have to disappoint all of ya, but this story will not contain lemons, first because I don't know how to write "that", and second because it breaks the narrative telling that I try to give to this fic,

of course I will write of how the witcher will seduce the ladies with his smooth talking, sometimes it will be plain blunt and direct, anyway it will be like the sex scenes that appeared in the game or any B-rated movie, there will be sex but it will be implied not directly described; ok.

Anyway, this chapter will be just to add more background and depth to the witcher character; it's him relating his story to the main warcraft characters, that it's unavoidable and it may contain things that you already know, but it also has some interesting things.

Anyway most of the information I took it from the in-game journal of the witcher game and from the wikia, and a fan video that I saw in youtube from a user named splinterro, where it relates the history of the witcher, I included their descriptions in this story, I hope no one gets angry at me, for doing that.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own warcraft or the witcher and some of the descriptions.

Chapter 3: self-introduction.

His name was Geralt of Rivia; he was a witcher, a professional monster slayer for hire.

He had finally managed to kill his quarry, after a long and brutal battle, currently he found himself surrounded by a collective of species in a place strange to him.

"A Witcher?... yes that demonic woman referred to him as such; although we don't know what a witcher is suppose to be or do" said Lady Proudmoore towards Kyng Varian.

"Yes… yes, what exactly is a witcher? It has something to do with witches, I assume" asked lord fordring

"Di ya' sit in front ova pot and bru poisons, Mon!?" Asked Vol'jin.

"Do you fly in a broom?" Asked king Magni.

"….. Do you consort with demons?" asked finally king Varian with a serious expression.

The witcher simply stared at them with an emotionless face for a few seconds, and then he replied without changing his expression. "No, I visit children while they sleep and collect their baby teeth, which they must leave under their pillows, and in exchange I leave them money in the same place, and then I use the baby teeth as construction material so I can build myself a castle in the clouds"

At this statement, he received incredulous looks from his spectators, who couldn't tell if he was lying or not.

"…………..Are you serious?" asked lady Tyrande with a very startled expression.

Again the witcher simply stared at them with an emotionless face, but then, a slight smile formed in his lips. "No, I'm just messing with all of ya'" he responded.

The faces of everybody deadpanned, they couldn't believe how easily, he fool them, but they quickly recovered and tried to maintain a dignify look once more, albeit a very awkward one.

"Don't know who you are, but I hate you already, wolf" replied King Varian with shame in his features.

"Well, I must say it was pretty good" said the younger Saurfang.

The witcher took notice of the brown-skinned orc warrior, and approaches him casually until he was face to face from him; he then put his hand under his chin and started to analyze every feature of the orc warrior.

Dranosh knew he was being measured, but he didn't react badly at this, he could see that the witcher had no ill intentions for doing so; rather he was acting with a curious expression in his face, as if he had never seen an orc in his entire life.

"What kind of creature are you? I have never seen a being like you in all my travels" stated the witcher towards him.

"mmmph…. You never seen an orc do you? we are a proud and brave race of warriors, we never run from a good fight, and never shiver at the face of imminent death". Retorted Dranosh proudly.

"More like warmonger beasts, which cannot seem to satisfy their own bloodlust" Barked Varian with venom in his words.

"What????? It is much better to die in the face of battle, than whimper and cry just because you cannot stop the advance of your enemies" spited Garrosh in a rage towards Varian, which ensued another confrontation between the leaders.

The witcher simply stood there with his gaze upon the leaders, analyzing every detail of their exchange, he neither move nor flinch at their outburst; always observing with a watchful eye their "interactions", their hate, their despise for each other, and suddenly the witcher felt, he was at home.

………………….

Jaina felt a headache forming in the back of her head, once again the faction leaders were engage in dispute, with her trying to calm them down, how quickly they were to return to normality, after the most recent and disturbing events, which remind her about the stranger, and the poor impression they were giving to him, but she had no time to think of him right now, she had to quelled the heated humors before something serious might happen.

Finally, after much effort the leaders were able to calm down, Jaina sighed with relief when suddenly she heard a voice behind her, "this remind me too much like home" she turned around to see the witcher sitting on top of a rock with his legs crossed and his arms on top of them, he looked calm, undisturbed and even… amused? By the recent discussion.

The rest of the Alliance and Horde leaders acknowledge him, and suddenly they felt a little bit embarrassed, which resulted in a very awkward silence, and the leaders casually avoiding to look at him.

Finally lady Aegwynn, who just like the witcher kept to herself quietly during the whole ordeal, broke the silence. "Well it appears that the rulers have settled their tempers, that's one thing less to worry, but it appears that you have not yet explain us exactly what is a witcher, mister Geralt, was it?

The witcher raised an eyebrow at her "No I haven't, well I suppose I still have to make a proper introduction". The witcher raised himself with a gracious jump out off the rock and on his feet, carrying himself as if everything was normal.

"You don't seem even fazed with the recent…. Discussion, do you? "Asked Jaina.

"I'm pretty accustomed to such things, actually from where I come from, your ways of interaction will be considered pretty civilized" retorted the witcher, with a shrug of his shoulders.

"Please do tell us about yourself" said lady Aegwynn, getting back on the subject.

"Very well, as I said before, my name is Geralt of Rivia, and I am a witcher, a professional monster slayer for hire, I hunt, kill and slay beasts and monsters that terrorize the land for a living, like the charming girls that you saw me dealt with, a little while ago"

"Really? You face fiends like those women in a daily basis, are those women the only type of monsters you face? Said Jaina impressed.

"No, practically any beast or paranormal or superhuman creature are the ones I dealt with, is a wide range, Vampires, ghosts, ghouls, Wraiths, wild beasts, man-eater beasts, undead, lycanthropes, shape-shifters, demons, fiends, elementals, cultists, possessions, curses, etc, you name it, I probably killed or dealt with, I don't have the tendency to speak about specific assignments, that's why I carry a journal"

"That's…that's really impressive, you must have great skills indeed, …mmm… what exactly you can do? What are your abilities" exclaimed Lord Fordring with a new found respect towards the witcher.

"well… there is this" the witcher taked out the glove of his left hand, he opened his palm and extended his arm toward the leaders so they may see his hand, he pulled out a knife from one of his straps with the other hand and stabbed the knife in his open palm, the knife had gone through his palm, half the knife had exited through the back of his palm, then the witcher using his strength manage to pull the knife downwards toward his fore arm, cutting and making his way through the witcher flesh.

The witcher didn't even flinch from the pain he was self-inflicting, he always kept his face in a blank state, without making any sort of expression, this disturbed the majority of the people that was watching him, who only manage to stare at him some with his eyes widen, others with scared or dumbfounded expressions, when the knife reached the middle of his forearm, the witcher pulled it out.

Then the wound started to mend, the faint blood that he had bleed (surprisingly few for a injury of that magnitude) twitched and was sucked back into the body, the open skin closing itself back, leaving no trace that a wound was there a few seconds ago.

"As you can see my body can cure by itself any wound that I may get, I also got a high resistance to pain, which allow me to not stop my attacks when I receive an injury, pretty useful during fights, my skin also is really thick like natural leather, also my body doesn't bleed much if I am injured, that's I why I didn't bleed much despite the wound that I self-inflicted myself, also I am virtually immune to any kind of poison or disease, which means I never got sick, and if someone tries to poison me it just go through my body without harming me, my speed and reflexes are above any mortal men, you already saw them yourselves, also my strength too is above the norm".

"How strong are we talking about?" asked king Varian with an incredulous expression.

The witcher smirked " allow me to show you" he walked towards Varian and put a hand in his left shoulder, without notice he made a feral yell, the muscles in his arm tensed and he lifted Varian completely off ground with just one hand, managing to stretch his arm at full length upwards.

This action seriously startled Varyan and many of the alliance soldiers while at the same time, giving devious grins to many of the horde's troops, especially Garrosh, who find Varian's current predicament quite amusing.

"AHHH, WHAT THE FEL ARE YOU DOING? PUT ME DOWN!!!!" yelled Varian, he was so startled that he ended up kicking Geralt in the face, which cause him to realease his grip on Varian, who fell unceremoniously with his face first into the ground, grunting unintelligible things.

"whoooops, sorry, that kick of yours unfocused me, you should not do that while someone is holding you over his head, but don't worry lucky for you, I'm alright" said the witcher with such vanity.

"You alright!!!!? I'm the one who ended eating dirt, you stupid wolf" retorted Varian, highly upset towards the witcher.

"Well, you're the one who wanted to know the measure of my strength, you should not react like that just because things didn't go well for you" commented casually the witcher whit a shrug of his shoulders.

King Varian gave a fuming look toward Geralt, seriously considering ordering his troops to shoot another volley of projectiles towards the witcher.

But before any more complications could arise the younger Saurfang offered his opinion "Wow, You certainly are a very talented individual mister Geralt, being a monster hunter I bet you should have lived quite wonderful adventures, and performed great heroic deeds".

The witcher shrugged his shoulders and shook his head to both sides before replying with an expressionless face "not at all, I just do what I was raised to do, nothing remarkable in that"

"Nothing remarkable!!!! We saw how you split that demonic woman in two halves with just one attack, I say that was damn impressive if you ask me" replied Dranosh Saurfang.

The witcher scowled a little at this "again there is nothing remarkable in doing, what you supposedly must be doing, as if dealing with monstrous things and being at the brink of death in a daily basis will be something for the people to envy".

Jaina was impressed, this man who obviously can perform amazing physical feats, faces horrorific beasts and monster as a living and yet he does not boast or tell about his accomplishments like many of the adventures she had met over the years, he rather shows displeasure when speaking about his accomplishments "Why do you say that? What makes you think that?" asked Jaina in rapid succession.

The witcher again acquired his blank expression "why?.... because that's what I do, I offer a service for which I get paid, regardless of what kind of creatures I kill, that's all, I have ties to no one, nor loyalty to any particular banner, kingdom or race, then after my assignment is complete, I go to find the next one, and so on, and on and on, and I will continue to do so, until I die.

"Until you die?" asked Jaina timidly.

The witcher smirked at this "yes, I know how my life is supposedly to end, every witcher dies in a crude, brutal or violent death, either be by the monsters we hunt or by people who fear us because of the power we wield, or covet it for themselves while at the same time needing our services; that's how things are suppose to be, I have no delusions of glory or grandeur, I just do what I must to survive and to carry on with my trade".

So your work is your life; that is all? that's is all you care?" retorted Jaina with worry in her voice.

"Yes" answer the witcher bluntly.

"But what about the people you saved?, don't they feel grateful for what you do?, don't you care for someone at least?, don't you have friends?, don't you love someone? Don't you think of having a family of your own? Or to change your profession?"

The witcher hesitated a little, sadness crept into his face, this was a touchy subject, one that he didn't feel the desire of explain, he looked Jaina into her eyes, he saw innocence, compassion and naivety in them, and suddenly, he realize that she was more beautiful than he had originally thought, he felt something creeping in the back of his throat, he knew he could not deny her an answer.

The witcher sighed and said "yes….. There were, or are people of whom once I cared, many are dead now, found an abrupt end for their lives, others…. I lost track of them, sometimes I encounter them during my travels and we catch up, good to know they are still alive"

Then the witcher took a pause before continuing "And yes, there is or was someone that I once loved, it didn't end well, it was nice thought while it lasted" The witcher then stopped talking, and touch his nose bridge with his fingers as if the memory was painful to him "… It really ended badly" he finally declared.

"What happened?" Asked Jaina shyly.

The witcher kept silent for a moment before answering.

"She died…. She tried to save my life, I was mortal wounded and barely alive, and she sacrifice herself so I could live" the witcher lowered his gaze with sadness in her face.

"I'm sorry, I didn't know" Replied Jaina, feeling ashamed for having make Geralt to remember a painful memory.

"no it's alright, truth is we could never had a normal live, because I could never give her what she desired the most; we could never be a family…..and I… we could never have children of our own"

"What? Why not?"

"it's a part of the price we pay for the power we wield, you see in order to be effectives monster slayers, the witcher's conscripts, most of them children must undertake a series of dangerous magical rituals; the trials of herbs"

"The trials of herbs" asked Rhonin intrigued.

The witcher nodded " yes, the trials of herbs is one of the most guarded secrets of us the witchers, I cannot give you all the details, but I will give you a short version, we are…… we ingest mutagenic plants, that force changes into our bodies and we are exposed to a great deal of magical experiments, with this we gained the strength, speed, reflexes and abilities necessary to face the terrible monsters that our profession conveys, and arise victorious, many of our children do not survive the experiments, they are really dangerous with a high mortality rate around the conscripts….. And those that survive develop… side effects."

"Side effects?" said Jaina a little nervous gulping some saliva

The witcher smiled and pointed his hair, the skin of his and his eyes "yes, side effects…. as you can see"

"That explains why you have the looks of a wolf… and why you are so unnaturally pale" exclaimed King Varian a little uncomfortable.

"Ah yes, my wolf looks, funny you mention that, the people used to call me the White Wolf"

"The white wolf… that seems fitting" mentioned Varian.

"Yes indeed, anyway some of the side effects are quite visible, others not so much….. Another side effect is my inability to procreate any offspring of my own".

"WHAT?!!!!!!" yelled Jaina with widen eyes.

"Yes" said the witcher while rubbing his neck "because of the experiments I was left sterile, that is why I cannot have children of my own even if a wanted too, all of the witchers either be man or woman are left sterile after the experiments"

Many of the leaders and even the soldiers behind them were horrified by this, to expose mere children to such gruesome inaccurate experiments that cause so terrible side-effects in exchange for power.

"How is that you increase your numbers then? Didn't you say that most of your conscripts are children? And you witchers cannot procreate, I doubt that many people are willing to depart from their sons" asked Rhonin.

The witcher smiled lightly "you will be surprised, from where I come a great war was fought one that plunged many kingdoms into misery, the people was desperate and many were willing to sell their own children for a few coins, but of course that did not always leave us with enough conscripts, but that's was solved with the Law of Surprise"

"The Law of Surprise?" asked Rhonin suspicious.

"Indeed, is the price a man who saves another can demand. It is a request for something which neither the savior nor the saved knows the nature of, until the saved man safely returns home. Typically this ends up being the life of a child, born while the father was away"

"What?" asked Rhonin clearly having not understood what the witcher had just said.

"allow me to explain it better; when a witcher saves a man's life and the man says, "In gratitude, I will give whatever you desire," the witcher then answers, "You will grant me whatever unexpected thing you encounter when you return home." In rare instances, the surprise proves to be an infant, born during its father's absence. Based on the Law of Surprise, the child belongs to the witcher, becoming the Unexpected Child to whom the witcher is bound by Destiny. Many Unexpected Children are brought to Kaer Morhen, where they are then raised and trained to be witchers".

"What?!!!! You take children from their parents as payment, that's terrible" yelled jaina.

The witcher merely shrugged "that's what we have to do in order to survive, you may not like it, but we do not do this because of malice or wickedness, we do it because of necessity, if we do not have enough children then the odds that any of them survive are low, which means there will be no one to carry on our trade, and thus, us the witchers will be doomed to extinction" the witcher smirked "in fact we are already at the verges of extinction".

Jaina was incredulous yet she was in no position to admonish him, he was from a different land after all, so she timidly asked "have you… have you done that? Taken children from their parents?"

The witcher closed his eyes and sighed, but then a slight smile formed in his lips, his face was warmed for the memories flowing through his brain "Once, just once have I had to do that, but it was for the best, she survived and became a very successful witcher, sometimes I heard rumors about her past exploits, and I cannot prevent too feel proud"

"Proud? Why so?" Asked Jaina with genuine curiosity in her voice.

"As I said, we witchers can bear no children, we have to take the children of other people to boost our numbers, but almost always we take really young children even babies into our care, we are the ones who raised them, we are the ones who feed them, protect them and train them until they are ready to undertake the trials and if their survive, we are the ones who prepare them to go out into the world."

The witcher sighed before continuing "because of that is not a surprise that we form a bond with them, more so because of our sterility, many witchers care and see the children as if they were their own, and the children, being as young as they are see us as their parental figures, that also comes with disadvantages, if the children die during the rituals then some of us fell as if a part of ourselves died with them, for this reason some witchers, normally the veteran ones just simply leave the children in the care of the headmasters of our order, in our fortress-base of Kaer Morhen, so they can avoid themselves the pain of losing them"

There was a long silence afterwards; the witcher was too busy with his memories, reliving that particular chapter of his life. "I… I'm glad she survived, and yes I see her as if she is my own daughter, I don't know what I would have done, if she had died….I… I wasn't what you could call the best Role model for her, in fact I tried to get rid of her in several occasions, leaving her at the care of others, but eventually we became inseparable… but, she and I were not meant to be a happy family, the war broke out and envious eyes took notice of her, you see she was very special, she had a natural affinity for magic and for that she was hunted and persecuted by others who wanted her power".

The witcher grimaced for just a moment and then he continued with his telling "they made her suffer in ways that I dare not to remember, and turn her life into misery, but she managed to best them at every turn and in the end she brought down swift and bloody revenge upon them"

"What is her name?" Asked Jaina curious about this unexpected burst of emotion from the witcher, who she thought to be a pretty cold man and also because she had became enthralled in the sad history of his foster daughter.

The witcher smiled greatly at the memory of his foster daughter "My sweet Ciri; well that's how I call her, she had forged quite a name for herself among the people, whom call her; Cirillia: The Lion Cub of Cintra"

He then spoke seriously "don't bother in trying of pry any more information about her, I don't feel the desire to tell you"

Jaina decided to drop the subject seeing it was really touchy for the witcher and cleared her throat "okeeeeey, wait if you have raised a child to adulthood then that means that you must be old, yet you look really young; exactly how old are you?".

The witcher shrugged "dunno I stop counting years a long time ago, from where I come, beings that had deals with magic like us the witchers or the sorcerers tend to age at a very slow pace, we can have several centuries of age and still look young, some of us can live for several millennia before expiring, but that's pretty rare, especially in our profession, I can't remember my age, but if I had to guess, I say that I am several decades older than him" ended the witcher while pointing towards Lord Fordring with his finger.

"…mmm… well that makes sense to me, you wouldn't know at first glance but I have quite the millennia of existence myself" said Lady Aegwynn flushing a little.

"…mmm… then you must be quite a powerful sorceress yourself" said the witcher raising his eyebrows.

Aegwynn laughed briefly at this "well even though I do, have a level of magical understanding greater than the average mage, my days of glory have long passed; I can no longer do some of the things that I could accomplish during my youth"

The witcher flinched briefly "but I'm sure you have earned a great deal of experience, that is more important than any impressive feat that you could perform, for it will be the only thing that will save you in the most critical moments, I have survived very dire situations thanks to the knowledge I've gained in past experiences, when everything else fails, this is the only thing that allows me to stay alive no matter the odds; tell me wouldn't you have wondered, or desired that you could change some of the things you did in your youth?, now that you have the experience of the passing of ages, don't you dream with the opportunity to correct past mistakes?"

Aegwynn was taken aback by his response; she didn't expect that Geralt where a man of wisdom; but he was right, few things surprised her anymore, and this man had managed to do that thought, she sadly smiled and responded "Yes… yes I do".

Aegwynn faintly smiled "…mmm… I didn't expect you to be quite the wise person".

The witcher look at her with his expressionless face "no, not wise but experienced, I seen quite a lot, during my travels"

A full smile was now adorning Aegwynn face "yes it will seem like it" a brief silence ensued before Aegwynn continued speaking "Tell us about the world you came from".

The witcher frowned and made a loud sigh before answer back "That is a story that I am not fond to speak of, but if I must…" the witcher opened the purse in the left side of his body and pulled out an enrolled scroll, he then addressed back to Aegwynn "Here, take it".

Aegwynn took the scroll, and unfolded it, curious about what it might be; she was surprised when she saw, that it was a wide map that depicted and described with great accuracy, lands and countries totally foreign to her.

The map was big enough that she had to extend her arms to totally display it, the rest of the faction leaders quickly stood behind Aegwynn to take a glimpse of the map, well…. all but Garrosh, who was fuming something about, what interest could it be in a oversized piece of paper.

When a reasonable amount of time passed, allowing the leaders to analyze the map, the witcher spoke again, the witcher spoke again "that is the land where I came from".

"The Great Continent, divided mostly between the Northern Kingdoms and the Nilfgaardian Empire in the south, other places are the lands of Zerrikania far southeast, Haakland to the east of the Northern kingdoms beyond the Blue Mountains, and the great Korath desert in the middle."

"…mmm… this a very well depicted map you have here, mister Geralt… what can you tell us about this Northern kingdoms?" said Aegwynn without takeing her gaze from the map.

"The northern kingdoms are the major human nations north of the Amell Mountains, they are called Nordglings by the Nilfgaardians, they are also inhabited by a number of dwarves, elves, gnomes and Halflings, who live as second class citizens".

"Second Class?" asked Jaina surprised by that statement.

"Yes, there are a lot of racial tensions between humans and non-humans, humans being predominant tend to persecute and discriminate the rest of the races" Declared the witcher with a slightly grim look.

This statement made most of the non-human leaders to scowl profusely; they did not like the idea of having fellow kinsmen being discriminated by humans.

"There was always bad blood among them but it became even drearier when the war with the Nilfgaard Empire ensued, so bad it turned, that regular pogroms where carried forth"

"Pogroms?" Asked king Magni a little terrified about what a pogrom might be.

"Pogroms are, a form of riot directed specifically against a minority group, such as dwarves or elves, it's an organized and sometimes officially government encouraged massacre and persecution of non-humans; mobs of angry citizens swept away through cities, terrorizing the non-humans, violently dragging them out of their own homes, to be lynched and killed in the streets, burning their homes, businesses and reunion centers; it is a massive public execution of men, women and children, of any non-human species at the hands of prejudice crowds of humans"

All of the leaders and faction troops, that were listening to the witcher tale, where left speechless with their mouths wide opened at the hearing of such explanation, their minds unable to comprehend how such hate and injustice could exist.

"HH..How such a thing could be allowed in your world?" asked King Varyan very disturbed after hearing the witcher explanation.

"Allow me to relate, how this came to be" the witcher then started to relate the major actual events of his world.

"All this began with Nilfgaard; Nilfgaard is the mightiest empire in the history of the known world, is loathed in the southern part of the continent and boasts both a thriving economy and powerful military forces; it has expanded mostly through the conquest of foreign countries, which then are turned into provinces of the empire.

The provinces are then ruled by a steward or a king; if a king willingly gave up his country to the empire he retained his throne, but was subject to the ruling emperor. The empire expanded through the years, conquering new lands and always expanding further to the north; until one day it decided to invade the northern kingdoms"

The witcher took a few moments to gather his thoughts and continued with his tale.

"More than 10 years have passed since the Nilfgaard Empire invaded the Northern kingdoms; at first, one after another fell, swept away by the military might of the empire, its power seemed beyond any opposition.

Yet in the face of inevitable doom, the divided kings of the north united under a single banner; in the battle of Brenna, their convened efforts resulted in a resounding military triumph; the price of victory however, was tremendous.

Scorched lands, burned houses, refugees, disease and hunger became a usual sight; the monarchs bickered over the spoils, ignoring the misfortune of the common folk; war-time heroes turned to pillage to survive, rather to die in poverty; peace gave way to times of violence and decay.

Disillusioned humans turned to naming those responsible for their afflictions; their resentment was thus first aimed towards the elves, as many of them had stood by the empire side during the war; whole bands of elves survivors take over the woods, terrorizing adjacent lands.

Such prejudice had soon spread to encompass the dwarves, the gnomes, the Halflings and the mages.

The increasing disquietude was accompany by multiple divinations of a nearing doom's day, however not all was lost; among those that aided the kings to reinstate peace, was the order of the burning rose, an order of knights well versed in the art of warfare; they tried to give hope to those who had none.

Yet even they were not enough to confront all the plagues left by thee nilfgaard war, diverse beast and monsters emerge from the shadows; terrorizing roads and plunging entire cities into despair.

They recalled the unremitted need of us the witchers, the professional beasts slayers, however those of us who know the trade, are few and our numbers keep diminish more and more over the years".

"So what happened?" asked Tyrande intrigued by the witcher tale.

The gaze of the witcher became more serious.

"We succeeded, we clear the roads, secured the cites and exterminated every beast and monster we could find, but alas it prove to be our doom". The witcher lowered his gaze with a grim face.

"How so?" replied Jaina.

"We were too good; we drove the beasts and monsters to the edge of extinction, until they became a rare sight thus diminishing the need of us services, we were never well receive by the common folk, remember that I told all of you, that they have strong prejudices?"

Everybody nodded

"we; the witchers are individuals who can wield magic, thus we were feared and hated by the common folk, but at the same time we were the only ones who could save them from the terrors that preyed upon them, so we were needed, by taking out every single monster, such need was quickly overcome, and so the very people that we had saved, turned against us".

Jaina felt a little apprehensive, to have fought so hard only to be betrayed by those that you swear to protect, she could not fathom how someone could endure that.

"Eventually our fortress-keep of Kaer Morhen was assaulted and destroyed by groups of angry mobs, and our secrets stolen, since then no new witcher has been trained.

But I made sure to correct the situation; I hunted the responsible people for the assault, thwarted their ploys to using the secrets of our strength for their own gain, collected retribution from their heads, and recovered back that which was stolen" the witcher heavily sighed.

"But alas, nothing has changed, still no new witchers had been trained and our numbers keep dwindling; and now I find myself in an unusual situation, away from my home in strange lands and unable to return… oh well, it could have been worse". Finished the witcher diminishing his situation.

"WHAT?!!! Are you not preoccupied that you will never be able to return to your home or see your friends again?" asked Jaina incredulous by what the witcher had just said.

The witcher grinned "Nah, I should have died a long time ago and in several occasions, yet I kept surviving somehow, I don't have hopes for the future, my kind is dying, a low painful death that will eventually erase any trace that we, the witchers once existed.

And finally, the moment in which I leave the world has arrived; well at least I can still retain my life, a much better conclusion compared with other ones of fellow witchers and as for my friends, the farthest I stay away from them the better they are of being safe ".

"We could try to return you home" offered Jaina.

The witcher laughed "doubtful, you don't know the location of where I come, as much as I don't know where am I, that crystal was the only connection with my world and now is utterly destroyed, there is no turning back for me now".

Jaina made a profound sigh, she knew the witcher was right, without the exact location of the witcher world, they will not be able to send him back, it was too dangerous to try to open portals at random worlds, she couldn't help to feel helpless, she was really desperate to help him in some way.

"So what would you do now?" Asked Aegwynn.

"What else but, continuing with my trade"

"So you would offer you services to us?, I think someone like you could be really useful in our war against the scourge" declared Bolvar Fordragon

"no, I will offer my services to no one yet, first I must get myself familiar with this world before venturing to do anything" replied the witcher.

"A sound and callous decision" interjected Aegwynn.

"thank you, besides I don't think it will be wise to offer my services to complete strangers, who I just met, and that had not yet introduce themselves, well… cept' for king Varyan over here, although that was not the most proper introduction that I had ever seen" retorted the witcher with a smug smile while pointing Varian with his finger.

Jaina blushed fiercely of embarrassment; she just remembered that neither she nor the rest of the leaders had yet introduced themselves, they had heard the whole story of this man, and they haven't even tell him their names, she was must distresses for this lack of touch from her part; the rest of the leaders were also ashamed enough that they not dare to look the witcher into the eyes, the best they could muster was being playing dumb.

Jaina scoffed a little, trying to regain some composure.

"Yes; your right, sorry for that lack of acknowledge form our part, it just… well your story was so interesting and intriguing that we just forgot introductions, again we are very sorry; let us make a proper introduction then".

Jaina straight her posture and offer her hand to the witcher.

"My name is Jaina Proudmoore, I'm a powerful mage and also the ruler of the port city of Theramore; it's a pleasure to meet you mister Geralt".

The witcher look at her, amused for just a moment before taking her hand with his, and kissing it with a reverence.

"The pleasure is all mine Miss Proudmoore" replied the witcher with smug smile.

Jaina was even more embarrassed by the witcher actions towards; nevertheless she managed to retain her composture.

She introduced the witcher towards the rest of the faction leaders and captains, giving a brief description of their respective factions, the witcher acted with respect towards them, addressing them with respectful nods.

After finishing with the introductions, Jaina addressed herself again towards the witcher.

"Well that does it with the introductions; I wish we could continue with the explanations but it's already too late, we should return to our respective encampments"

Most of the leaders nodded at that, and gave orders to their followers to retreat, the big tent that serve as a neutral grounds for their meeting was quickly brought down, and the armies began to march along each side of the road in the middle of the cliffs bases.

Jaina spoke with the witcher again.

"You could come with us if you want, we could give you some accommodations".

"No its fine, as I said earlier I will not take any sort of decision before knowing more of the place where I am, besides I don't think is wise for me to choose between the horde or the alliance, who as you told me are rival factions, we witchers are neutral towards politics and rulers, we never pick sides and we always tried to stay at bay from conflicts"

Jaina kept looking at him, thinking that maybe it could be a good thing that he arrived in their world; she suspected that the witcher could be a decisive factor in avoiding an open conflict between the horde and alliance; her thoughts however were interrupted by the intrusion of High tinkerer Mekkatorque.

"Excuse me lad, but I couldn't avoid to see that you carried two sword with you, I can see that they are of fine quality may I ask about why you carried them".

"Ah yes my swords, we witchers carry two distinctive swords one is made of steel, of a very special kind forged by the witchers in our fortress of Kaer Morhen, its purpose is to be used against humans or humanoids beings in cases when we required to protect ourselves from attacks made by them, whether be bandits, highwaymen or else, it's also useful against wild beasts"

"May I see it?" inquired Mekkatorque

The witcher unsheathed his sword and handed it over to Gelbin, who examined rigorously.

"This is a fine blade, its craftsmanship is very remarkable, simple yet elegant, durable yet lighter and this steel is from a kind I have never seen before" remarked the high tinkerer clearly impressed by the witcher's blade, handling it back to the witcher.

"Yes it is a good sword, witchers steel it is unique in our world, sorry but the specifics behind its forging are one of our most guarded secrets" told the witcher taking his sword back and sheathing it again.

"And the other one?" asked king Magni a few paces behind Gelbin along with the rest of the leaders.

The witcher unsheathed his silver sword and held it in a way that the leaders could see it.

"This is my silver sword every witcher has one, this sword it's only used when we are about to strike down a monster, the monsters from my world are more susceptible to silver, so it's not a surprise that we used silver swords to kill monsters rather than steel.

This sword should never be used to strike down any human or non-human people; doing so it's strictly prohibited, unless we truly believe that the person we are killing is a monster; because of the great prejudice among the races in my world, humans tend to address any non-human race as a monster, and demand our services to kill them, but we the witchers decide who is a monster and who is not, we could still take the job to kill the non-humans, if they were bandits or pillagers, we offer those services too, but we would not use our silver sword to strike them down, to do so will be an statement that we believe that this race in particular is one of monsters, it's a very delicate situation."

King Magni nodded grimly at him along with Varian; no one uttered another word for the rest of the journey back to the factions bases. The witcher had decided to follow them thinking it was the best course of action if he wanted to know more about this new world where he was at.

Finally after some minutes of walking the entourage arrive at the base of the two factions fortresses, each one among the cliffs in both sides of the roads, and in the middle one could see the immense wrathgate in the background.

"here we are; the bastions of Fordragon Hold and Kor' kron Vanguard, each one belonging to the alliance and the horde respectively" addressed Jaina.

But the witcher was not paying her any attention; he was busier examining the massive gates of the wrathgate from the distance where they were currently at; he separated from the group to better analyze the gate, Jaina saw this, but said nothing; the rest of the leaders ended up looking towards him too.

"What a lovely place that is, I like the design is all warm and cozy, clearly its intention is to give a cheerfully greeting at any bystander and invite them to go inside" stated the witcher in his usual neutral stare and voice.

Everybody were watching the witcher with their eyes narrowed, clearly not amused by his statement; the witcher continued speaking.

"Let me guess; some crazy megalomaniac with world threatening plans, lives over there and probably kills anybody who even dares to look wrongly at him, and has serious issues about being unable to relate with others" state the witcher with a bothersome tone.

"You clearly know of what you are talking about" stated Sylvanas with a wry smile; the witcher merely raised an eyebrow at her.

"That's the wrathgate, the only road to reach Icecrown citadel, Arthas Menethil, the lich king, the ruler of the undead scourge that threats to cover the whole world with dead and decay lives there; we have established our strongholds in the base of the gate so we may lay siege to them, in our attempt to stop him from fulfilling his murderous goals" said Lord Tirion Fordring, with a righteous fury.

"...mmm… I guess there is a story behind it, sadly it seems I will have to wait until tomorrow to hear it" the witcher turned towards Jaina "clearly all of you need to rest, I can feel it is already very late".

Jaina look at him into the eyes and said "What about you, don't you desire a place to rest overnight?, we could provided you some accommodations and a bed"

The witcher merely stared at her "I don't sleep".

"WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT?" everybody yelled.

"Yes, I don't require the need of sleep to recover my strength; but I do need to rest"

"Then what do you do?" asked Jaina asked bewildered.

The witcher sat himself down in the ground; he crossed his legs and put his hands on his lap before answering. "I meditate… a lot; I usually do so to ponder in the events transpired during the day, and to plan my next actions, which by the way I should do so now, considering what has occurred… this place is as good as any".

"Are you serious? You cannot simple stay sitting in the middle of the damn road, this is the lich king domain, his undead minions hold and travel trough this grounds" exclaimed Varian dumbfounded.

"mmmph, undead creatures are not foreign to me, I know how to deal with them, besides I'm not blind to my surroundings while I meditate, my senses are always in alert; and as I said before, I'm not entirely sure to accept the gifts of someone that I don't entirely know is a good idea, now leave me, we can speak about this in the morning" retorted the witcher, and started to making signs for everyone to leave him be.

"Are you sure you don't want anything? I really wish we could do something for you" pledged Jaina in a wishful tone.

The witcher sighed and responded "very well, as you wish; some logs of wood will be nice, so I can make myself a small bonfire".

"We can send someone to provide you with the logs, are you sure you will be alright here outside on your own?" addressed Thrall to the witcher.

"Yes, others just tend to get in the way, now if you don't mind, I shall begin with my meditations" and with that the witcher dismissed the leaders.

"We will send someone too, so no one may say that the alliance don't help strangers" exclaimed Varian before leaving.

…………

Several minutes after the witcher was left alone, two figures appeared walking towards his direction, they were carrying some wood in their arms, each figure had emerge from one of the factions encampments.

One was a little sturdy cloaked figure, wearing a light armor and carrying a rifle in his back; a dwarf; the other was long and tall, with tusks in his mouth and spiky orange hair in his head, clad in a bone armor, carrying two small battle axes in his hip, and a bow and several throwing axes in his back; A troll.

These two figures stared at each other before reaching the witcher.

"yo' dere lil' dwarf, I know Horde and Alliance, ar nut in di bezt rilazionship but am nut hir luking fur truble, I'm just guing to diliver biz wud, and guing back to my incampment, no nid fur tings to git ugly bitwin us"

"don't worry yourself much for that troll, I know most of your horde aren't that bad, my elder brother fought in the battle for the Hyjal alongside horde troops, so I am a little more tolerant towards you kind than the average alliance troop, that's why I was chosen to deliver the alliance present of wood, don't mind me and I don't mind you" replied the dwarf.

"feir inugh, com lit's end wit tes bifur we git fruzen".

"Very well let me speak with him first, it seems that the chap over there is more familiar with us dwarfs, that may avoid us some unpleasantly if he doesn't react well against a race that he doesn't know".

The troll nodded and the dwarf approached the witcher.

"Hello there lad, my name is Torbin Mightyanvil, and I came here to deliver this logs to ya' by orders of the king Varian" addressed the dwarf towards the witcher.

The witcher already having acknowledged their presence opened his eyes, to be greated by the sight of the smiling dwarf.

"mmph, tidings my name is Geralt of Rivia, the new and apparently only witcher if this world; tell your partner that it's safe to get closer, I will not harm him"

The dwarf turned, a little perplexed at this and turned to meet the troll eyes with his own, the dwarf shrugged his shoulders, and the troll shake his head, he then approached the witcher.

"hellow tir Mon, my name is Zungo I'm a Troll, and caym hir to dilivir biz wud too ya¡"

The witcher stared at the troll intrigued "mmmph, come here it will be interesting to know something about your race".

"thanks Mon!, glad yu' didn't tri to kil mi "

"Ahem, I don't want to interrupt but I think I had to make an apologize to you" interrupted Torbin.

The witcher raised an eyebrow "………..Why?"

"Well you see…. I was the one who, you know shoot you in the chest" said Torbin a liitle nervous.

"bah don't mind about that, I don't blame you for that, I blame King Varian and his heated temper, besides is not like you could do any real damage to me, now be nice and prepare those logs for a bonfire"

"ufff…. Thank you, I had thought you might get mad at me or something well I guess we can help you to make a little fire over here".

"lit me hilp wit ta Mon!"

Torbin and Zungo quickly piled up the logs in front of the witcher; he then created a fire by releasing a small charge of the sign _Igni._

"Now, what can you two tell me about the horde and the alliance?" asked the witcher towards the two couriers.

And so the troll and dwarf for the rest of the night debriefed the witcher in the most recent events in the land. Familiarizing himself with this land lore, he would need to know everything he could, if he wanted to survive to the tasks to come.

But that's another story; for another time.

**Note: **well there you have it, about the witcher strength I dunno, I think geralt is strong enough to raise Varian with just one hand, in the intro video of the game he stops cold the strigga with just one punch, although I suppose it was the potion he took at the beginning of the intro, anyway I think he strength will be equal or slightly major than that of a Tauren or an orc during a rage.

I promise next chapter will have some action, geralt first encounter with the lich king minions.

Nevertheless I have an important announce, I just get myself a new job, that's great for me but bad for all you because now I have less time to write this fic. I will continue to do so, but it may take me a longer time to update the chapters; also I will temporarily halt my writing when red dead redemption is released, because I have all the intentions of the world to buy and play that game when it is released, which is next week.

So don't be surprised if it take at least a month to update this story, sorry but all of you know how important is to have a well paid job, and I wanna still be able to play my videogames.

Now, I don't know how the hell write in Haitian, which is the way a troll speak, I just write as badly as I can and hope am doing something right, I know it may sound insulting, but it just because I really don't have a clue how to properly write in that way, if someone could give me a hint, it will be appreciated.


	6. Chapter 4

**Author's note:** YES, SUCEES, I finally managed to found my usb, here you have it, the next chapter of this fic, just in time too 'cause I had said that I will have it uploaded this week, anyway I think I should stay with the pencil and paper for saving my advances.

**Disclaimer:** you know the drill… I own nothing.

Chapter 4: Meeting the Scourge.

His name was Geralt of Rivia; he was a witcher, a professional monster slayer for hire.

The witcher had spent the night, listening to the stories of both the horde and alliance members that were accompanying him; they had told him a brief story about their respective species origins.

Torbin told him, how the dwarfs came to be; believing to have been created by the titans, carved from the rock itself, he also told him about the most important conflicts in dwarf history; their schism and the war of three hammers, all the way until their joining as one of the first races in forming the alliance, and their participation in the 3 great wars.

Zungo, told him about his own race too and their long rivalry with the elves since the trolls wars, how the trolls joined the horde in the second war, separating themselves from them after losing the war, only for his clan to rejoin again in the new reformed horde leadered by Thrall, after he saved the darkspear clan from being massacred at the hands of murlocks.

Both relate him some brief explanations of each faction, their standing in each of the 3 great wars and the subsequent events leading up to this point were both horde and alliance are willing to make a one front assault into the wrathgate; The witcher heard their stories in silence, pondering in all that were telling him, and formulating his own opinions in each subject.

Suddenly, the witcher senses detected something… unnatural, he made hand signs to is companions to stay quiet, he raised himself from the ground and started to survey his surroundings; He could hear the quiet whispers of the wind in his ears, and felt the wind cold but gentle caresses in his face.

He could smell the dead and dread around him, but there was something different in it, it was dead alright but a different kind of death, it was not just mere passing of the living, it was also something darker; the decay of the flesh, the taint of the body and the corruption of the soul.

He could feel something hungry and corrupted was coming; the witcher's eyes pierced the darkness, acknowledging everything where he put his gaze on, nothing could escape from him as he examine his surroundings.

He turned his attention towards the wrathgate, seeing its helmet-shaped entrance; his gaze went down towards its base and kept going further down; then a few yards down the main wrathgate entrance, he saw them; some horrendous beings that he thought were his welcoming party.

He took notice of their characteristics: at the front were 2 colossal beings of great musculature with pelt and fur covering the upper part of their bodies; their legs were covered too in fur just like their chests and shoulders, the beings wore some kind of tattered armor in their lower body and forearms, they had long beards tied in somewhat crude ponytails, they had stitch scars all over the exposed parts of their bodies, as if someone had mended several different body parts to create them, half of their faces had their skin missing exposing their bare skull; both beings carried big bones as clubs.

Behind them were following 5 slim humanoid beings, they were dressed in tattered clothes, like the ones used by dungeons inmates, that were ripped in several parts, theirs arms and legs were covered in old and soiled bandages, their heads were covered by a cowl reminiscent to the ones used in criminals that were executed in the gallows, in fact a long rope noose was tied around their necks, the rest of the rope hanged loosely from it; a big eye in the middle of their faces was visible through a hole in their cowls; all of them had long sharp claws in both hands and feet.

Finally providing the bulk of the group forces, were 2 dozens of apparently humanoid beings or more likely corpses, most of them were standing in a hunched-over posture, they had rotten and decayed skin that had fallen in several parts of their bodies exposing their bones, their limbs and facial structures were deformed giving them a dreary visage, they had long claws and teeth as well, some of them still had hair in their heads which was long and unkempt like an animal mane.

The witcher addressed back to his companions; gave them the descriptions of the creatures that he had seen and ask them what they were; they listened to his statements and proceed to dutiful answer him.

"Are you sure that they are there? I can't see anything, it's too early and darkness still covers the land too much for me to discern anything" said Torbin a little skeptical .

"My senses are more acute than the norm, believe when I tell you, that I can see them, heard them and smell them; they are positively coming this way" retorted the witcher.

"Well… if ya' zetzo Mon!... Den' I shall trust ya'" answered Zungo.

"The bigo'ans, are called Flesh Giants, big'o nasty fellas , dey' are hard to hurt, hard to kill and can diliver quai't da' punch, be careful wid' dose'"

"Yes what the troll says is true; now the slim ones with the cowls are called Geists, they are quite fast and agiles, often serve as manual labor for the lich king efforts, although they may not look so tough, they can surprise you with their acrobatics and speed if you are not careful, although a well placed hit should be enough to send them back to the fellhole from where they came from"

"anyway the little ugly ones are ghouls, these are you common scourge foot soldiers, they tend to swarm over our infantry lines with blind rage and hunger, often alone or with back-up from other bigger things; they are quite vicious, not to mention cannibals, but they cannot resist a lot of damage, their decayed bodies cannot handle the strain".

"Yup, dats 'ight, individually ghoulz are noding' more dan' a boder, but when cuming in packs, lil' baztards becum a real pain in da' arze"

"…mmm…" muttered the witcher, he found the ghouls of this world being quite different from the ones of his own world, who where restless spirits that could easily steal the life essence of the living, the most efficient way to deal with them was to find their graves, and decapitate and incinerate their bodies, but the ones of this world had total control over their own bodies; well… hearing how brute strength could be enough to destroy them, he didn't had to worry much.

"I want the two of you to return to your base strongholds immediately; I will deal with them alone" ordered the witcher.

"Wut? Ya' plan to face dem' all by ya'self wid' no backup?.... Are ya' crazy Mon or wut?"

"Got to agree with the troll there, you should not underestimate the scourge, they are like a hungry swarm of lobsters that fall upon our lines, relentless and tireless, feeling neither pain nor fear, and with each of our soldiers that dies in battle their numbers grow"

"I'm not underestimating them, in fact quite the contrary, I need to test their skills and see what they are capable of, so I can find a proper and efficient way to kill them, and its best if I do it alone, other people with me might get hurt" seriously explained the witcher.

The witcher unsheathed his silver sword and then pulled a vial from one of his purses; one filled with a blue sky liquid; Necrophage oil; a liquid that was quite efficient in putting undead things to rest, the witcher smeared the liquid on all his blade surface, totally coating it with the oil.

Both Torbin and Zungo had their respective doubts, but after have been witnesses of the witcher's skills against the Bruxas, they decided to have some faith on him.

"A'ight Mon! I ztill got my doubts 'bout dis, but after watching ya' killing dose dreary looking women, I zhall bilive ya' will be 'kay"

"Yes, that was an impressive display of swordsmanship, well with that speed and reflexes of yours; I suppose you have a chance against the scourge minions; the little ones are quite fast despite the state of their bodies, so be careful"

Torbin cleared his throat a little before continuing.

"Well, I suppose we should be going, I shall inform the king and miss Proudmoore of this recent turn of events, maybe they could provide you some support"

"Yay, dat' zounds smart, I shud inform da' warchief too, also I shud wake da' oders leaders as well, while a'dit".

Torbin and Zungo bid their respective farewells to the witcher, before heading towards each of their encampments that were at the base of each of the cliffs that were surrounding the road towards the wrathgate.

The witcher sighed, he pulled a small briefcase from his main purse and open it, grabbing one of the vials stored inside, he drank the vial's contents in one sip, then the witcher started to shake a little, his veins hardened and blackened, his skin became somewhat transparent making his skull to be clearly visible through it; after he had settled a little, he packed his items back were they belonged and after that he assumed a meditative stance, waiting for the scourge minions to get to him.

By the time the scourge forces were getting near the witcher, it was very early in the morning; the light rays of the dawn sun were barely visible, due to the massive amount of clouds that were blocking its way.

The flesh giants were the firsts to get close to the witcher's bonfire, making grunting noises, with heavy footsteps they reached were the witcher was sitting, but he paid them no attention, keeping himself in a meditative trance.

One of the flesh giants groaned and raised his bone club with the intention of smashing the witcher, his heavy arm descended in one vertical swing towards him.

Geralt, suddenly opened his eyes and evade the flesh giant attack in the last moment, by performing a backflip jump from his sitting position.

The club and fist of the giant crashed, heavily on the ground spreading snow and dirt everywhere; the witcher wasted no time and ran towards the giant, climbing on top of his arm, still lowered in the ground and used it as some form of ramp to get close to the giant's face; the witcher lunged toward the giant, with his sword aimed at him and rammed it in the joint between the giant's neck and shoulders.

The giant roared in pain, moving violently trying to shake the witcher off him, but the witcher twirled his sword and violently pulled it out from the giant, worsening the wound and spreading blood and gore everywhere, the witcher performed another backflip using the giant's chest as leverage to get away from him and landed gracefully in the ground.

The giant tried to retaliate but the witcher was too fast, before he could strike at him; the witcher had run towards the giant and slide between his legs, making 2 slashes in them wich caused the giant to trip.

The witcher jumped frontward at the end of his slide and brought down his sword on a distracted Geist, who was sliced trough and trough by it; he quickly rolled to a side to avoid the club of the second giant.

……………………..

Jaina was moving fast between the buildings and tents in fordragon hold, with Aegwynn close behind her, she could see the great amount of soldiers gathering at the stronghold's outer walls and gates, Varian being among them, trying to take a glimpse toward the road, the soldiers were heaped very close at each other or on top of each others.

Jaina had been suddenly awoken to receive the news that the witcher was going to be attacked by a scourge patrol, before hearing the roars and battle noises outside, that prompted her to hastily dress herself and ran outside.

She could see the other leaders quickly running outside their tents or being already among the rising crowd, she stopped outside the gates entrance and forced her way through the crowd, only to find herself with the sight of the witcher evading the attacks of a flesh giant and several ghouls.

The witcher stepped aside to avoid one of the swings of the second giant, but then he had to quickly duck and protect himself with his sword to block the attack of a ghoul; with one quick swirling motion, the witcher separate the ghouls legs from the rest of his body and while the ghoul was suspended in midair before falling, the witcher performed a backflip kick that hit the ghoul square in the face and sent his head flying away.

The witcher started to charge a sign in his left hand, while at the same time evading the attacks of the second giant and the rest of ghouls and geists.

A geist tried to stab the witcher in the back with his claws, but the witcher stop him cold, turning around and using his right elbow to hit the geist in the chest; in a quick sucession he raised his forearm to hit the geist in the middle of his head with the back of his fist, this made the geist to tilt his head backwards; the witcher turned himself around once more, to allow his sword to decapitate the gist, whose limp body fell unceremoniously into the ground.

Two ghouls suddenly lunged towards the witcher, he immediately slide toward them on top of his knees, and with two quick slashes, he decapitate both of them in midair while at the same time making a 360 degrees turn.

Geralt had to roll again to avoid being smashed by another attack of the second giant, he released his charged sign; _Axii, _the giant's upper body was surrounded by a green glowing mist, that came from the witcher's hand, psyonic waves surrounded the giant's head and leave him clearly dazed.

The giant suddenly stood straight and turned around to face his allies; he made a terrible groan, raised both of his arms and slammed them in the middle of their midst, crushing 3 ghouls in the process and leaving the rest confused as to why his allied was attacking them.

The giant launched several swings with his club, killing more ghouls, he then turn his attentions towards the other giant, who had already stand back-up and recovered from the witcher attacks, The run towards his twin and crashed with his shoulders into him, sending him back to the ground.

The ghouls had overcome their confusion and jumped on top the giants back, viciously cutting and biting both his upper back and neck; the giant jerked violently trying to shake them off, sending several to fly in multiple directions.

The minions of the scourge were so distracted by the giant treason, that they had forget about the witcher, he made sure to show them the price of their mistake by killing several of them from behind.

One Geist throw a punch toward the witcher, but he easily dodged it by ducking; he took the opportunity to grab the geist by its wrist, and rammed his sword in his stomach, finally tossing him away; The geist landed roughly and tried to stand himself back up, but was stomped by one of the massive foots, of the giant under the witcher's control.

The other giant had stood up again and tossed himself in a rage attack against his traitor kin, tossing punches that connected in the other giant's face and body, the traitor giant retaliate with a swing from his club, that hit the other giant square in its chest and send him once more back into the ground.

The ghouls had managed to nastily wound the traitor giant in the back, during their first attack, taking chance of his now brief weariness; they climbed once more into his back.; chomping and ripping his flesh once more, the giant a little tired from the encounter with his twin, was unable to shake them off; finally a ghoul ripped out a significant deal of the giant's spine with his mouth; the giant fell face first into the ground, with the ghoul on top of his back.

Approving groans were heard from the rest of his kin, but the ghoul was not going to have time for approvals, the witcher cut him in half, when landing behind him from a jump; he looked in the direction of the rest of the undead forces and made a half-smile.

Only 2 geists and 5 ghouls remained, they cautiously surrounded the witcher, knowing now how dangerous he was; one of the ghouls jumped toward him and the witcher intercept him in midair and brought him down with his sword; that was the cue for the rest of the undead to attack him.

The witcher immediately slide towards the nearest enemy and swing his sword, making wide attacks at root soil level; this caught the undead by surprise, because they were expecting more conventional attacks, this brought the demise of another 2 ghouls, one decided to jump away to avoid being hit; but the witcher had already anticipated that move, he brought the tip of his sword upwards in a stockade, and pierced the ghoul's skull, from the middle of his jaw to the back of his head.

One of the geist decided to attack him from the flank, the witcher made an 180 degrees swing attack that cut one of the geist's arm off, and then rammed his sword in the middle of his chest, while having his back turned toward the geist; the geist was perplexed and the witcher twirled the hilt of his sword to ensure the geist's death, it went limb and his body rested on the witcher back; the witcher pulled his sword out and the geist body fell to the ground.

The 2 last ghouls attacked the witcher, the last geist decided not to and ran way instead, the witcher extended his left arm and grab one of the ghouls by its neck, against the other he used his sword to parry his attack, then used the hilt of his sword to hit him in the face, following with a knee kick in the stomach that lift the ghoul from the ground, and finally brought the ghoul down with his sword, all this while tightening his grip on the other ghoul's neck, uttering shattering his bones that became dust in the witcher's hand, making the rest of the ghoul's body to fall to the ground.

The witcher's ears straight up and his eyes widen for a second; he quickly rolled to a side to avoid being pummeled by one of the massive fists of the remaining flesh giant.

The giant groaned and yelled; he had terrible wounds inflicted by both the witcher and the other giant that he had taken control of.

The giant kept tossing punches pummeling everything in his wake, except the witcher who was dodging his attack by performing rolls and backflips.

Finally the witcher decided that he had enough, and tossed a punch of his own, at the same time that the giant was tossing one; both fists connected with a thunderous impact and the bones of the giant's hand utterly shattered by the force of the impact, splattering bones and blood.

The giant made a loud cry, covering his broken hand with his other one, the witcher followed suit with an uppercut that hit the giant square in the jaw, and send him flat on his back into the ground.

The giant made an unintelligible series of noises, clearly stunned by the witcher's punch; Geralt jumped on top of him and proceed to toss punch after punch in the giant's face, each hit soaking the witcher's fists with more and more blood while the sound of bones shattering was heard; he finally stopped when the giant's head was nothing more than a bloody stained pulp in the ground.

The witcher move along and proceed to make his usual breathing exercises and mantras to relax himself, he returned to the remains of his bonfire and cleansed himself and his equipment from the grim of battle, he sheathed his sword, took a long sigh and sat himself back to the ground to start his meditations.

…………………..

All the factions members and soldiers, that had assembled on their respective encampments borders were bewildered, they had never seem someone killing a flesh giant using their bare hands, to say that they were utterly impressed was an understatement.

Jaina didn't know what to think, she was relieved to see Geralt unharmed, but she was awed and astonished of his skills, she wanted to know more about him, about the magics that he wielded and the abilities he used, she wanted to know practically everything about his trade, curiosity filling her every thoughts; Geralt was clearly a very impressive individual, clearly being something more that he appears at first glance, and very intriguing and alluring for some reason.

Jaina felt embarrassed and shook her head, to clear her thoughts; she was puzzled as to why she started to think that way about him, she was no mere damsel that fell in love at the first passing adventurer; she was a powerful mage, ruler of an important city, and ambassador and mediator between the 2 most powerful factions in this world, the destiny of many where linked to her decisions; she should…. She could not allow herself to feel that way for a newcomer; but then again this was not your usual newcomer.

In the end she decided not to think more about it, and rather focus on the matter at hand, she had to provide counsel to the leaders to make sure they don't act rashly or freaked out by the witcher display of abilities, she didn't want for the situation to get out of hand; they had to make a fair and thorough decision about what to do with the witcher.

But that's another story; for another time.


	7. Chapter 5

**Author's note: **Sorry for the long update, but I been really busy with my work which takes a lot of my time, and leaves my mind tired, when I get I home I just want to lay on my bed and don't think about anything else, actually I had already written this chapter and the next one a couple of months back but I didn't had the time or the desire to pass it on my computer, the little free time that I had, I just wanted to spend it playing my videogames, been playing Read Dead Redemption, Super Fcking Great game, got the 100% in the first playthrough, now I'm doing a second to obtain achievements, like the one of the money.

Now about the story I been taking in consideration what the reviews been saying about the witcher being too powerful, well I think I overdid it a little I will try to correct it, but is not that simple, I'm dealing with a character who is no rookie at all, the witcher is an experienced monster slayer who was been spent decades facing horrible beasts, deadly monsters and overwhelming odds, so of course that he will clean the floor with most of the beast or creatures, that are dumb or weak or common enough in the world of warcraft, but I will try to put it in situations where there will be a challenge that can put him in risk ok; I been thinking in a good way to reduce the power of the witcher and I already have an idea for that, I hope you like it when I introduce it in later chapters.

Anyhow; don't get mad if the witcher seems immune against a lot of things, I'm not the one who gave it those things, the author of the books and the developers of the game did it, and the fact I'm taking for reference both, well it's hard not to have an interpretation of him as some kind of medieval superhero; for example a couple of chapters ago when he blocked or deflected all of the arrows that were shoot at him; that's an in-game ability, there is a skill in the game that when gained, allows you to block every single projectile that is shoot at you making those threats harmless, as long as you are blocking of course, there is another skill that rises his chance of blocking an attack +50%, for every attack that comes from behind him, and in this story I'm pretending that all of his attributes and skill trees are at Tier 5, so that's a lot of power, but if you have a suggestion about how to make an interpretation of the witcher without making him look too powerful, be my guest and share it to me in the reviews section.

Anyway, but I think I really made a wrong interpretation of the witcher's healing ability, I remember in the game that that thing, took a somewhat reasonable amount of time to fully heal the witcher (the description was 1 hp per second), I was thinking more of wolverine when I was writing about that skill, whose healing is almost instantly, I messed up in that thing, so I will have to correct that, I will make it like something useful to have, but that should not be relied upon when in battle.

Finally, I will try to pass the next chapter as soon as I am able to, don't worry I will keep writing this story, it may take me from now on a lot of time to update, but I will eventually publish the next update no matter how long it will take to do it.

Disclaimer: I don't own either Warcraft or The Witcher

_**Chapter 5: explanations and accords**_

His name was Geralt of Rivia he was a witcher, a professional monster slayer for hire.

Almost an hour has passed since the witcher had dispatched a small scout party from the Scourge at dawn's first lights; the day had cleared and the clouds had diminished allowing to anybody to fully appreciate the sky.

The witcher was currently sitting in the ground near the remains of his bonfire writing new entries in his bestiary for the creatures he had just faced.

The factions leader were approaching him, they wanted to have some explanations about the display of skills they saw him to perform when fighting against the scouts.

Each leader had their small entourage composed of their close advisors and bodyguards, although the leaders had decided to bring just a small amount of people with them, many of the adventures and off-duty soldiers that were assigned in each of the strongholds had decided to tag along with their leaders, with the clearly intention of peeking and see the newcomer; curiosity was a strong sentiment among the factions frontlines, and rumors had been quickly to arise.

They had encountered the witcher writing in his book, the book for them resulted interesting to look, because it had the same symbol of a wolf head that the witcher's pendant was carved of to represent; they decided not to interrupt him and rather they gave him curious looks.

Geralt kept writing despite the fact that he had the leaders of each faction in front of him; he neither looked at them nor spoke to them, despite the fact that he knew that they were standing there; several minutes passed and the witcher was still writing in his book leaving everybody else still waiting and in the loop.

Finally tired of waiting Varian decided that he had enough, he cleared his throat noisily trying to gain the witcher's attention, but the witcher kept writing not heeding him; Varian cleared his throat once more in an even louder fashion only to receive the same results.

In the end Varian, clearly irritated by the witcher rudeness, yelled "God-dammit; don't ignore us you damn wolf; what the fel is that you're doing, that's so important?"

The witcher stopped writing and turned his gaze towards Varian "what am I doing?... writing as you can clearly see" he responded and then added "unless you are blind"

Varian had facepalmed and muttered for himself "_the day is just starting and is already proving to be a bad one_", he then addressed again to the witcher "actually I'm…."

"Blind in one eye" interrupted the witcher "I suspected as much"

"Wait….what? How do you?... what do you mean that you suspect it?" asked Varian

"Easy, when you where speaking last night, you had one of your soldiers standing beside you with a torch lighted, one of your corneas contracted because of the light, like any normal cornea would do, but the other was still in a regular size despite the fact of having the light falling upon itself, that's where I suspected that you had lost the sight in one eye, must have been when you received that cross-shaped scar of yours" answered the witcher.

"mmmph… really clever, now would you mind telling us what was that you were writing?, or would you prefer to keep trying to drive me nuts? Asked Varian mockingly.

The witcher stared Varian for a few seconds and then responded.

"Neither; I would prefer to be able to finish with my writings rather than doing anything else, I really don't care what is that you wish to know by trying to speak to me, I'm not here to indulge your curiosity, now if you excuse me? I have to finish with my writings"

Varian was fuming, but before he was able to lose his temper Jaina interjected.

"We just wished to know if you were alright, after all you were attacked by a scourge scout party, which means that the Lich king must have felt your arrival to this world".

"I'm fine, I have faced worst and bigger things than those corpses back in my world, they weren't even able to lay a finger on me; actually it was quite an enlightening experience, it allowed me to study those creatures, and saw what they could do; now I can come up with a more efficient way to kill them" the witcher assumed and inquisitive look, and after thinking for a few seconds he asked.

"This master of theirs, this lich king, what makes you think he felt my arrival?

"well, it's too much of a coincidence that a scout party had engage you the same night that you arrived, he must have felt the magical energies released by that; me, Aegwynn and Rhonin felt them, they were immense and no doubt the Lich king felt it too, this are his lands after all, he sees and feels everything that happens here, he must have sent that scout party to look for anything unusual, which means you, but I suppose you could rest easy for now you killed all the scouts, so no one would be able to inform the lich king of your presence in this world, you should from now on tread carefully so you may not attract his attention".

The witcher was silent with a serious expression in his face; and spoke.

"I think is a little too late for that" the witcher sighed "I did not killed all of the scouts; one got away"

Lord Fordring spoke at that.

"Then he knows about your presence here, that could make you a target for the scourge, clearly the Lich king would be interested in adding a skilled individual such as yourself to his undead army, whether you are willing or not".

The witcher scowled briefly, just for a second and said.

"What a bother, is too early for me to be facing the tyrant in turn, I still have much to learn before even seeking to meet with him, which by the way I have no desires to do so".

Aegwynn raised an eyebrow at that and asked.

"Really? What is that you intent to do then?"

The witcher shrugged and answered.

"what I'm going to do, I had already told all of you, I'm going to seek information, this world is new and foreign to me, it has its own dangers and troubles, I require to know everything I can about them, and of the people and creatures that inhabit it; who they are?, what they can do? And if they are dangerous, the proper way to deal with them, I also require to know the history and ways of this world, by preference from the mouths of the people who were there, I also need to get familiar with its layout; in short I require to know absolutely everything of this world in order to adapt and carry on with my trade".

Aegwynn half-smiled at that "mmm… you are a very thorough individual aren't you, mister Geralt?"

"Success is not something achieved by mere chance, it requires preparation and patience, a battle is won long before the combat even starts, not during it" answered the witcher.

"What are you talking about?" interrupted Garrosh abruptly "all that is required to win is strength and will, the rest are excuses and tricks used by the weaklings to compensate for their lack of strength, winning is the only thing that matters and the only way to achieved it is by strength" stated Garrosh bluntly.

The witcher laughed at Garrosh statement utterly pissing him off.

"How cute, you amuse me greatly with your naivety; thinking that you can achieve victory by simply rushing towards your enemy, with no regards for your own life or consequences, real cute, some may think that course of action is brave"

The witcher then became serious.

"But it's a fools notion and one destined to fail, strength alone cannot save you, relay to much in it and it will be your doom.

How come that one that's supposedly has to lead his people to victory can think that such childish notion can succeed? Have you been living under arock or something? "

Varok interjected at that.

"Actually that's not too far from the truth; Hellscream has been living his entire life in a remote isolated village in outland, away from this world conflicts, only recently before the scourge second invasion, and King Varian, over here, return after his long absence, is that Garrosh has been having his first steps into this world, assuming leadership of his father's clan".

The witcher brow twitched clearly that information had displeased him.

"Who the hell thought that putting a _**noob **_in charge will be a good idea?" asked the witcher irritated.

"EXCUSE ME, no one calls me a noob and gets away with it, I fought my entire life really hard to make sure that the village of the Mag'har in the land of Nagrand was safe from the perils of Outland, I was one of the few leaders that the villagers turned into when in the need of aid, I and great mother Geya kept them safe, despite the adversities, and is because of my will and my strength that I reached into the position that I am today" responded Garrosh made a fury, ready to pull out his axes and attack the witcher.

Thrall sighed and spoke "Garrosh is right he does know a thing or two about keeping his people safe, but it was I who brought Garrosh here as an advisor of mine, you see Garrosh's father; Grom Hellscream was a good friend of mine, he was a great and brave warrior for our people but he was also a loyal and trustworthy friend, but he had some bad traits of his own he was reckless, headstrong, impatient, and arrogant and even though Garrosh inherited much of Grom's bad temper, I have hopes that he will in the end learn how to be a good leader and member of the horde; allowing him to reclaim the leadership of the warsong clan, was my way to honor the friendship that me and his father once held for each other".

Varok interjected after that "I'm sorry warchief, but no matter how noble are your intentions and expectations I have to agree with the witcher in this one; putting Hellscream in the same position as his father was a mistake".

"How dare you old man and "_**this**__"_ outsider to question my strength and capacities?, My father was a strong and powerful warrior who save all of the horde from the demonic curse of the burning legion, if it wasn't for him all of you will be dead or enslaved by them" . Retorted Garrosh angrily with poison in his voice.

"If it wasn't for your father there would not have been a demonic curse to save us from, in the first place, it was his own stupidity that brought that thing down on us again, after so many years of sacrifice and fighting to get us rid of that curse, you father comes and tossed everything we accomplished through the window, drinking the blood of Mannoroth and enslaving our race once more at the hands of the demons" Replied Varok heatedly.

Thrall interjected quickly at that. "Stand down Varok, it's true that Grom made a terrible mistake by bringing back the demonic curse on us, in a desperate attempt to gain a victory over the night elves, whom he… he mistakenly engage in conflict with".

Thrall was furrowing his brow as if the memory was an unpleasant one.

"That's a lightly way to put it" retorted Tyrande with a scowl.

"Yes I know, I'm sorry Lady Tyrande, I know Grom killed Cenarius your demigod and cut down a great deal of your ancient sacred woods" answered Thrall apologetically "I know Grom made a lot of mistakes during his lifetime, but in the end; in the end he tried to correct them, we manage; Jaina, Cairne and I to break him free from the curse and he and I went to confront the demon Mannoroth to free our people forever from the curse, I was knocked out by the demon strength and Grom alone face him and slay him, sacrificing his own life in the process, and riding our race forever from the demons influence; and I know that one day, Garrosh will learn from his father mistakes, following his example and becoming a leader of which his father and I, would be proud of" finished Thrall with tears starting to form in his eyes.

"Right… it does not matter that he killed and murdered a lot of innocents, and even almost bring doom to your own race of brutes, all is right and forgave just because in the end he felt bad, had a change of heart and end up dead fighting the demons" commented Varian sarcastically.

"WHAAAAAT! You dare to mock of my father sacrifice; I should kill you where you stand, Human". Threatened Garrosh

"The human is right" mentioned Varok.

This brought many surprised stares from practicably everybody, except the witcher who was in his usual demeanor.

"What? What treason is this?, how can you side with the humans against us, old man?" demanded Garrosh.

"Not against us, against you; and that fool of a father of yours" Pointed Varok "his sacrifice does not compensate for all the damage and suffering that he caused and brought upon us and others, if it wasn't for him nothing of that should have happened, we would have never been controlled by the demonic taint again, and a lot of good warriors will still be alive; more important we will not be in animosity with the night elves, if it wasn't for your father impatience, we could have be in good terms with them from the beginning, saving us a lot of bloodshed and lives in the process for both sides, and we could have avoided this stupid conflict that we have with them nowadays, a conflict that by the way we don't need, is just a waste of resources and manpower, which by way we could be using to strengthen our position here in Northerend, against the Lich king and his scourge minions".

Varok paused for a moment to catch his breath; Garrosh took the opportunity to yell him back.

"My father did the honorable thing and died trying to save our race, he was always a fierce warrior devoted entirely to the orcs cause, he always fought and bleed for our people, as for the night elves why would we have to suffer those damnable tree-lovers, my father was right in confronting them they are nothing but weaklings and snobs idiots, who value more the life of a goddamn tree that the life of their so called warriors; we should be crushing them with our might, not wasting words with them, you don't know what you're talking about old man, your nothing but a fool, a relic from the past who's days of glory have long come to pass"

Tyrande and most of the night elves were about to retort Garrosh's insults but before they were able to Varok speaked once more.

"Yes, I'm a fool, We were… we are fools… all of us elders including your father, we were fools for drinking the blood of Mannoroth for the first time so many decades ago, blindly deceived by promises of power, we did terrible things, we were murderers and no matter what we do or say nothing will atone us for our sins, nor fix the damage we inflicted or bring back the lives we took, there was no honor; nothing to be proud of in those days"

"it was a terrible fate that we brought upon us and others willingly, but in the end we realize that we have made the wrong choice, we had acknowledge our own stupidity, and we felt ashamed by our actions, ashamed for what we had done, it took us many years and hardships, but in the end we realize that we could have a better future for our kind, one were we would not be mere expendable tools for the demons, a future away from war, away from the bloodshed and death, away from the suffering; we fought hard to escape from the errors of our past; I thought your father had learned that back then, but clearly he didn't, I shouldn't have been surprised that your father stupidity, made him drank again from the demonic blood he was always an impatient idiot, and you carry much of him with you, the same recklessness, the same stupidity, it would not be a surprise if you do the same stupid mistakes and condemn us to the demons once more".

Garrosh stepped forward without uttering a word, looking with murderous intent toward Varok and pulled out his axes trying to strike him down; Varok parried both axes with his own.

"I will kill you for what you just said old man" growled Garrosh.

Garrosh take a step back and prepare to launch another attack.

"GARROSH, VAROK, STAND DOWN THAT'S AN ORDER" yelled Thrall.

But it was for naught, Garrosh took another swing toward Varok, but he easily deflected the attack and hit Varok hard in the face with the pommel of his axe, sending him to the ground, Varrok then positioned the edge of his axe under Garrosh neck, effectively finishing the confrontation.

"You are so pathetically predictable Hellscream, and it would seem you will not change and see the errors of your ways, I told you before, should you try in your own rashness and foolishness to start a war with the alliance, I will kill you myself, I don't care if the warchief condemn me for treason, I prefer death than to allow a foolish pup warrior wannabe, with disillusions of grandeur to drag the Horde into another useless conflict, I won't let you destroy everything that we fought so hard to accomplish just like your father almost did, _**I will not allow it**_" finished Varok tightening his grip on his axe and increasing the pressure on Garrosh neck.

"VAROK THAT'S ENOUGH" ordered Thrall

Varok looked furiously directly at Garrosh eyes, for a few more seconds before backing up, releasing his axe from Garrosh neck.

"As you wish warchief, I shall let the fool live for now" With that he returned to his position back at the warchief's side.

"mmmph, I know is not my place to intervene, but I must said one should not talk ill of the dead, no matter what they had done in life, it tends to attract bad luck, nevertheless, I kinda liked the old man, he really knows how to put the fools in place" casually commented the witcher to no one in particular.

"Well thank you, sometimes is an insufferable thing to do, but someone has to do it" retorted Varok

"Indeed" answered the witcher back.

"SHUT UP, shut up both of you, I will not tolerate this humiliation" growled Garrosh standing back up with a little difficulty, bleeding from the nose. "I will extract my retribution from your severed heads"

"mmmph, your right, he really doesn't learn, does he?" Commented the witcher to Varok, giving a brief glance toward Garrosh.

"Yes, that's why I get all workup; it is really doing wonders for this old man health too, you know" retorted Varok; the witcher nodded sympathetically.

"Ah yes, I do know how troublesome are fools like him, one would simply want to lock them in a box an toss them into the sea"

"Nah I don't think that would work, most probably the sea will get insulted by it and send a tsunami upon us to return the fool back at us".

"Stop talking as if I wasn't here; you stupid old man, I will break you for insulting my father's memory, and you wolf I will crush you for daring to insult and put in doubt my strength and capacities, you are nothing but a coward that use cheap tricks, a weakling who lacks the strength and courage to face the enemy face to face, the total destruction of your enemies that's the only way to achieve victory" Barked Garrosh.

The witcher yawned heavily at that causing dumbfounded looks by most leaders, a smirk in Varok, and an increasing fury in Garrosh.

"Foolish and pointless, if for you victory means the destruction of your enemies, then it does not matter how you obtain it if the results are the same, I really don't care what you think, in my trade, victory means staying alive and defeat means death, if I have to use unconventional and indirect approaches to ensure the demise of my quarries, I would do so without reservations, of what good is honor if you are dead, and your enemy is alive so he can continue with his rampage, you said yourself you only care about the death of your enemies, well that is something that we the witcher's have as one top priority, the complete annihilation of our targets, I have faced creatures that you could have never imagine, not even in your worst nightmares, dreary things that lurks in the shadows waiting to devour the unwary, Savage wild beasts craving for the flesh of the living, things that the mere sight of them are enough to drive a sane man mad, and some things that should never had existed, I faced them all and they all failed to kill me, I survived, and I been doing it for a very long time". Stated the witcher, as he was now the center of attention once more.

"The victories that you saw me obtain while I been in this world, do you think I achieved them by mere strength? No I had taken previously steps to ensure it.

For example, when I was bitten by the bruxas, those vampiric womans, that you called fiends, you saw them die right? do you think that it was because I'm a strong and powerful individual?, no it was because I had previously poisoned my blood so it will be lethal to any of the vampires that fed from me, because I knew it was a possibility that I will get bitten"

"What? How could you have poisoned your own blood? Isn't that dangerous?" Asked Rhonin.

""Those potions that you have saw me drank, are the answer; we witcher's are masters in alchemy we can create potions that enhance our already great set of abilities for a brief time, or induce some temporary changes into our bodies, like turning our blood into poison.

We also create special oils for our weapons that we smear on them, to either improve the weapon effectiveness against certain type of enemies, or we can improve the elements of its forging to be more resilient, lighter, faster, or powerful depending of the oil.

We also made bombs of different types and effects, some are normal explosive devices, others can blind our opponents temporary, or start a fire that cannot be turned off to engulf our enemies, or explode in toxic clouds that sicken and poison anybody who breathe them" explained Geralt.

"Fascinating, is that has something to do with the fact that you defeated a Flesh giant with your bare hands?" asked Rhonin.

"Indeed, I am strong, yes, I already show all of you how much, but I'm not strong enough to brought down a being like that with my own strength, so I had taken a potion previously to increase my strength, and it allow me to beat the hell out of those things" answered the witcher "As I said information is a valuable weapon thanks of it, I manage to properly prepare to dealt with the scout party beforehand"

"What do you mean by that?, your saying that you knew you were going to be attack by the scourge" asked Varian with surprise.

"Yes I had anticipated their coming; as I had told all of you before I have enhanced senses more superior than that of any normal men, with them I heard them and smell them from miles away" stated the witcher.

"They stink quite I a bit, I must said" said the witcher while briefly tapping his nose and giving a wink to Varian.

"anyway, I then asked those two couriers that both factions sent to me, to tell me what they knew about those undead beings, then I decided that I need to test the abilities of those creatures, so I send Torbin and Zungo back to the encampments, that way I could have no worries about bystanders getting hurt, I have faced undead in the past, they do exist in my world too, so I wanted to see if the same methods to slay them in my world worked here".

The witcher grinned

"They passed the test quite well, I must said, nevertheless in my world there are different kinds of undead and all have different ways to be slay, not all can be killed with mere physical combat, an strategy or plan that might work against one, could be harmless against another one, so I assume that there are other undead beings in this world that will require a different approach to be dealt with"

"You are correct about that" stated lord Fordring "the armies of the lich king compress different beasts and creatures, from ghouls, skeleton warriors, and zombies as usual foot troops, to ethereal beings as the banshees and fades , they also include the abominations, flesh giants, gargoyles, necromancers, and even the wyverns, the bones of dragons death long ago, brought back into life by the power of the lich king to fight for him, not to mention that his powers can enslave and twist the local wildlife and beasts to boost his army forces; and also there are his death knights one of the most powerful agents of the lich king, they are the twisted, corrupted counterparts of our paladins, holy warriors, blessed by the light that felled fighting the scourge only to have their souls stolen from them and forced to arise anew to wage war against their former allies and spread the corruption of the scourge".

"…mmm… Undead, ghosts, beasts, corrupted knights and even dragons!... Ugh... Just my luck, this will prove to be quite a deadly challenge, (sigh) I guess I´m not going to be bored for a while, I will require preparing myself to face this scourge"

"you will help us?" asked Jaina hopefully.

"Not quite, I'm a witcher I kill beasts and monsters and get paid for it, this scourge is obviously a collective of monstrous beings and it fall in my jurisdiction to dealt with them, but I will not going to do it for free, I will demand a payment in exchange for their extermination" stated the witcher.

"Yes, yes you are quite the merc, I suspected as much, so you think you can deal with the lich king and its scourge all by yourself?" asked Varian raising an eyebrow.

The witcher scowled "What? No, I'm not stupid enough to raid the fortress of someone who can control the dead all by myself, especially if it has an army of said dead protecting him, we witcher's are no soldiers for any army, we are more like plague exterminators at the service of the people, besides I suspect a frontal confrontation against him will be futile, I will require a more subtle approach to dealt with this matter".

Varyan was bemused "More subtle; you mean like assassination, I thought you were a monster hunter not an assassin?"

"as I said, there are specifics and different ways to ensure the demise of the creatures in my world, some can be killed with mere brute strength, but others require indirect approaches to be defeated, because they are too dangerous or powerful to face head-on, and of course sometimes I been forced to kill humans beings, some of them had been persons in a position of power that could prove troublesome, if I were blamed for their deaths, so I had to rely in subtlety to get the job done".

"Why would you kill humans?" asked Varyan

"remember, I told all of you that sometimes we witcher's are persecuted by envious and greedy people who desire our powers for their own, I have to dealt with them and some were powerful lords or leaders of shadowy organizations, when our secrets where stolen, I had to kill a lot of people to get them back"

Then the witcher remained silent for a minute and looked away from Varian, something was clearly bothering him.

"There are also the times when I encounter people who were so vile, so wretched, so despicable and self-centered, who did not care about sacrificing the life of others to achieve their goals, so terrible were their deeds, that I had to brought my judgment upon them and declared them monsters, and so I kill them using my silver sword; the sword that only I have to use against monsters, never against people". Said the witcher with a grim expression.

Varian was wide eye at that; he remembered the conversation about the witcher's silver sword to be used solely for the purpose of slaying monsters and never to be used to harm people, for the witcher to have used it against another human, something really, really terrible had to be happened; there were similar expressions in the others leaders faces who were present at the time, and murmurs could be heard among the crowd of alliance and horde troops.

"I… I don't think I want to know about what they had to do, for you to do such a thing" declared Varian honestly.

"then you are smart, It is better not to speak of such things, there is nothing good that can come up from remembering them, only pain and sadness" retorted the witcher.

Jaina spoke "I think it will be best to not speak of awful things that will diminish our spirits, it will be unwise to do so in a place such as this, we should center our attention in other matters"

"Yes, your right, let's speak of something else" the witcher took a long breath of air "So I suppose you still have questions, very well for the purpose of diplomacy, I will indulge the lot of you"

"Great! And it only took us half an hour to put you in the mood to answer our questions" stated Varian "Do you always act like this?"

"Yes" answered the witcher bluntly.

Varian gave a look to the witcher "somehow it does not surprise me… why so?"

"Have you been paying attention about anything I have said? Or are you stupid by nature? I fight against evil violent beasts and monsters every day that have the tendency to eat people alive; I am hunted very often by assassins and soldiers send by greedy people who want to steal my power for their own, I am stalked by lords who want to use me or buy my allegiance so I can help them in their own shadowy ends, I am discriminated, feared and hated at the same time by the people I am bound to protect and serve, not to mention that I cannot have normal a peaceful live, because that option was taken from me, I cannot have a family due to my sterility, and If I ever managed to make friends or being in love with someone they tend to die or suffer because they are used as means to get to me, and even if I manage to kept them safe they die anyway, I age really slowly while the rest of the world around me withers and die;

So you try to be all smiles and sunshine with the live I have to endure, my dear pretty giggles King" stated Geralt

"Ok, wrong question, I get it, no need to get all hostile on me, I just wanted to know why always you act so distant and cold, I mean many people have harsh lives but even so they manage to retain a friendly and warm attitude" said Varian.

The witcher stared at him; giving him that look that one does when someone says something really stupid. He then stood up abruptly.

"Oh yes, what a wonderful live I must have, I should feel thankful because someone cares enough about me that they send someone to try to kill me, it doesn't matter what horrible things may happen to me, a happy face and a good attitude will save the day for me; look the love of your life has died, and you lost your memories so you cannot remember her face, leaving and empty hole and a bitter felling swelling inside of you; Do not despair, go dance into the flower fields, while singing a happy song and holding hands with the furry happy little friends of the woods, and everything will be set alright" mockingly said the witcher while performing very ridiculous expressions.

"Now you just being rude" Varian told him.

"oooough; I just felt a chill down my spine, when I tried to imagine him dancing and holding hands with little singing furry animals" stated Dranosh while shaking slightly.

"UUUUgh; damn, your right my son, there is something really wrong with that image; ahhhgh the horror" said the older Saurfang who was now shaking a little too.

"great; now thanks to you two I'm going to have nightmares tonight, I didn't even knew that, that was possible for us the undead" said Sylvannas with a deep scowl in hear face, she shake her head trying to get rid of the image with no avail.

Varian facepalmed he too tried to visualize that image only to develop a sudden head-ache.

All the rest of the people gathered felt too a sudden chill down their spines.

"Creepy Doughts" said Vol'Jin

"Enough we are getting astray from the subject here" Ordered Varian.

Tyrande was pondering about something.

"Despite the….. _Interesting_ thought about the furry animals, I did hear something that was odd; what is that about the love of your life dying and losing your memories about her?

The witcher closed his eyes and grimaced, and then looked away from the leaders while sighing heavily.

"Do you remember when I told you about how the woman I loved died trying to save me?" asked the witcher

The leaders answered positively.

"Well she almost failed to do it, I was so badly injured that I almost die, I was injured in the chest and the weapon was ramming trough my body, so I wasn't able to heal, by the time it was removed it was a little too late for me, she sacrificed a lot of her magical power to revive me, and she died for it, but the thing is when I woke up, I had lost all of my memories, I didn't remember who was I, where was I, or were I had come from.

It was kinda hard trying to get by with amnesia, luckily I was found by fellow witchers who gave me some much needed explanations, telling what was I and what was I supposed to do, I also find a former acquaintance of mine, a sorceress named Triss Merigold, she gave me also some information and a brief explanation about the current situation of the land and put me into the right direction to try to reclaim my former life" the witcher stayed silent for a few moments lost in thoughts.

"but never mind about that, suffice to say that I was able to remember enough to reclaim my life, over time I have recovered almost all my memories, but the memories that I have not yet remembered are those of the woman that I once loved, I remember the feeling, I remember that I loved a sorceress very much, that she and I used to travel together trough the land, and that we spend a lot of years together, but I cannot remember her face, every time that I tried to do it I fail, it's like a veil of mist surround her and blurry my vision, and I cannot get past it no matter how hard i try; over time I remembered more and more feelings that I used to have for her; but her image still escapes me, it makes me feel hollow and empty, those feelings become like poison tormenting my mind and my thoughts, it is a terrible thing to know that you loved someone with all your soul, but you cannot remember who that someone was"

"Dat's so mezzed up; Mon!" stated Vol'Jin.

"How long has it been since you lost your memories?" asked Jaina.

"Six years" answered the witcher.

Jaina remained silent for a while, ten years is a long time to be carrying such suffering, what surprised her most is that the witcher was so good to hide his feelings, one could not suspect that despite his coldness, he carry a great burden upon his shoulders. "I'm sorry" said Jaina.

"No need to be, there was no way for you to know and besides this is something that it only pertains to me" responded the witcher.

Varian could relate to that, he had suffered something similar when the dragon onixya disguised as lady Prestor tried to take control of his kingdom, by kidnapping him and separating his essence into 2 opposite personalities, causing him total amnesia, he escaped his capturers only to be later caught again, this time by orcs who turn him into a gladiator and force him to fight deadly foes to entertain them, he won battle after battle, and which each passing day he remembered more and more of his life, eventually he escaped with the help of 2 fellow partners and gladiators, Valeera Sanguinar and Broll Bearmantle; they continue to help him during his travels until finally he was able to return to his homeland, bringing to light the plot of the dark dragon to take rule over Stormwind, he defeated the dragon and later slay it in order to save his son, who had been kidnapped by Onyxia in a desperate attempt to gain the upper hand, during the battle Varian reunited with his other half that was separated from him, becoming into one individual again, and gaining the strength required to slay the dragon, after the dragon was killed and his head brought back to Stormwind, Varian reclaimed his right as king of Stormwind, bringing back some measure of stability for the kingdom; that is of course the short version of the story.

"I know of what you are talking about" said Varian.

"You do?" asked Geralt incredulous.

"Yes I too lost someone that I loved the most and suffered from memory loss that made me forget about her, albeit temporary, it was really shocking to me when I remembered that I had a wife and that she had died, but I also remembered we had a son together and that I was a king and had a kingdom to rule" answered Varian.

"uhh must have been quite the adventure" said the witcher.

Varian half-smiled at that "yes, yes it was".

Sylvanas was starting to get impatient and hissed "Sorry for interrupting this precious bonding moment between the human king and the so called mercenary, but I'm getting sick of this dilly dally, we been just avoiding the subject, and I want to know what the hell is that the wolf man was writing in that book of his"

The witcher was a little upset with Sylvanas interruption, but he decided to answer her nevertheless "first of I'm not a mercenary, I'm a witcher I been saying it since I arrived here, in case you haven't paying attention, second I'm not a wolf man, I may just have the looks of a wolf, that's all" said geralt while brushing his hair a little with his hand.

"Anyway what I was writing in this book" Geralt held the bestiary so it may be clearly seen by the leaders "were my impressions of those monsters that I faced, this is my bestiary here I have entries of every single beast and monster that I have faced during my entire career, with descriptions of every single one of their skills, tendencies, strengths, weaknesses, and proper ways to dealt with them, It's one of the most important possession and tool of a witcher" stated Geralt.

Now Jaina curiosity was piqued by that; as the curious and avid seeker of knowledge person that she was, she cannot help to be intrigued about what kind of creatures existed in another world entirely different from her own.

"Could we take a look at it? If is not much of a bother?" asked Jaina trying to hide the eagerness in her voice.

The witcher was amused by Jaina expression and think briefly of how to respond her.

"well it certainly there would be nothing bad to letting you peek a little, but I'm afraid I'm not a person who simply show his goods just for the sake of it, I have to get something out of this, so you may have to try a little of _persuasion_ on me" said the witcher with a sheepish smile.

Jaina rested a hand on her hips and smiled a little "what kind of persuasion?" she asked.

"I don't know, but I'm sure a lovely and attractive young woman like you could find _some _way to _persuade _a man like me"

Jaina looked incredulously toward the witcher "Are you serious?" she asked, the witcher merely stayed quiet looking innocently toward his surroundings.

Jaina rectified her stance, trying to remain serious "wait… are you playing with me? She asked.

"Am I? I wasn't aware that we were playing about something, I thought we were merely talking" retorted geralt with a sly smile.

"Are you always like this when speaking to women? I thought it was dangerous to entangle with you, not to mention you are… well you have some _disadvantages_" Asked Jaina.

"It can't be helped, really, why would I let my _disadvantages_, to stop me from enjoin the company of lovely ladies such as yourself, I really like to play and besides some ladies like the danger" answered the witcher with a grin.

"Ha! That may be true but I'm afraid, I'm not one of those ladies, mister Geralt" retorted jaina faking innocence.

"oohhhhh, too bad but well, that still doesn't solve this current situation, but I'm a reasonable individual, and I think we may find an agreement that will leave both parties _satisfied_"

"This conversation is starting to make me feel embarrassed" said Varian.

The witcher shrugged "it's not fault that the ladies found me to be quite the charming and lovable individual"

"You? Lovable? Ugh now I'm really feeling sick now, as if it wasn't enough with your flatly flirting with Jaina" retorted Varian.

"Flirting? Am I? I'm not doing such a thing, I happen to hold a great amount of important knowledge from my world, and it would be unwise from my part to simple reveal it to anyone without some form of assurance, if you think that there is some hidden intention in my statements, then it's not my fault that you have such a dirty mind, shame on you, I cannot believe that a king will think of such things from an innocent bargain" stated the witcher while mockingly faking to be insulted.

Jaina giggled at that and decided to play along "Mister Geralt is right, it would be unwise to reveal someone secrets without getting something out of it, but I have to asked you mister Geralt, It's that all that you can offer to us, surely a great witcher such as yourself will not just be able to offer just that, I'm sure you must be able to offer more, otherwise it would be disappointing" stated Jaina with a sweet voice.

The witcher was grinning at her; he really enjoyed this kind of interactions with women "of course not this just to qualm your appetite, if the knowledge of creatures is not of your interest, nor the layout of the land from the maps that I hold, which by the way you still had the one that I lend to the lot of you"

Jaina made an expression that could be describe as an "oooooops" for having forgotten that they still haven't returned the witcher's map, and made apologetic motions with her hands.

The witcher continued "I also happen to have books describing the cultures and story from the most important nations in my land, and botanic books depicting the different plants and ingredients from my world and their effects, this one I tend to use it along another book of mine that is just like my bestiary, but this one is for storing all my alchemical formulaes from which I made my potions, oils and bombs"

That statement picked the interest not only from Jaina, but also from many of the people present, and even Sylvannas was intrigued she had already seen the effects of some of the witcher potions, and was interest of knowing more about his particular way of alchemy, for reasons only her own.

"You have a book full of alchemical recipes foreign to us, that's… that's, yes, yes I think that will be acceptable mister Geralt" answered Jaina trying to not losing her balance.

The witcher turned seriously "Now let us peak seriously for a moment, I'm not really sure if I should show my alchemical formulaes to all of you, if I'm going to do it you must take extremely caution, and not fool around with them, although some of my formulaes are simple and well know in my world, others are rare and dangerous if mishandled, so you should not be reckless with them, but I have my doubts many of my formulaes are really powerful and I don't feel to expose this world to foreign alchemy that could prove detrimental to it, if not used properly".

Jaina responded "I understand, don't worry mister Geralt we assure we have the means to ensure that no one will mishandle that knowledge in order to avert a catastrophe, right archmagister Rhonin?" addressed Jaina to Rhonin.

"Yes, that's right Miss proudmoore the Kirin Tor has the means to ensure the proper study of this new knowledge safely without worry that something bad might happen"

"I'm not sure yet, what is this Kirin Tor you speak of, some kind of wizards organization?"Asked the witcher a little hesitant.

"The Kirin Tor is the main organization in this world dedicated to the proper study and employ of magic, they are most than qualified to handle this knowledge with the outmost care, I myself am a member of them, I must said" explained Jaina.

"….mmm…. Very well sounds reasonable enough" said Geralt

"Now that we are at it, we should also discuss the matter of the magic that you wield" stated Rhonin.

"Magic? you mean my signs?"

"Signs?" asked Rhonin.

"Yes that's how they are called, the signs are simple magic spells that we witchers use in combat, they can prove to be quite effective when used properly, there are not complex due to the fact that they are one of the most basic forms of magic in my world, much of the spells from my world require the use of complex magical formulaes in order to be casted, the signs require neither the use of a formulae nor the consumption of one magical energy reserves, instead the signs tap in the endurance of the one who is casting the spell, if you cast too much spells you eventually will get tired and will require a brief respite to catch your breath before being able to continue" explained Geralt.

"…mmm… interesting, I see something like that could be really useful" muttered Rhonin.

"Indeed they are; anyway that's what I have to offer, now what do _**you**_ have to offer me".

Jaina smirked, and assumed a dignified stance.

"Well you already told us that you seek information about our world, and we could provided it to you, we could allow you to look on our records, libraries and such, we could introduce you to our best scouts and rangers so they may teach you the layout of the lands and the creatures that dwell within it, we are after all the two main factions of the people of this world and because of that we have a great amount of resources that we can put at your disposal to satisfy every of your needs?"

"Every _**need**_?" the witcher asked with a mischievous smile.

That made Jaina to blush, realizing the implications of that statement.

Varyan interjected without losing a beat "Oh no, not again, we ain't going to fall in that game of yours once more, the kingdom of stormwind is not a brothel, what jaina said was, that we would give you any information or resource you may need, not give you wenches for your entertainment"

Thrall interjected too "I agree with King Varian, the horde too is neither a faction of pimps; I never thought someone would make that kind of implications in a dealing with us"

The witcher was chuckling, "fair enough, I expected nothing else form all of you; I just was curious how you would react at that, those were priceless expressions; besides I need no help when dealing with the ladies I can take care of that on my own, in fact I already have my eye on someone" the witcher took a small glimpse toward Jaina, who take notice of it and felt a lot more embarrassed than before.

"Damn, you certainly don't waste your time, Laddie" commented king bronzebeard "how is it possible that someone who is supposedly be sterile, have such lust?"

The witcher raised an eyebrow "Do you really want to know?"

"No, I think it is best for our mental sanity not to hear the origins of your depravity" stated Varian.

"I take offense at that" replied the witcher crossing his arms.

"Whatever, so are you going to accept Jaina's offer or not?"

The witcher stayed with his usual blank face for a few moments before answering "You really have a way for diplomacy, your highness" remarked Geralt "well despite your poor diplomatic skills or must I say lack of them" clearly the witcher was trying to pick on Varyan again, who merely snorted at that "I must agree with lady Jaina offer, I will allow for you to look in my books, logs and journals, under my supervision of course I don't want anyone to mishandle or use my knowledge for the wrong deeds"

The witcher was really serious about that, he received nods of understanding and approval from most leaders, except Sylvanas who was already formulating a way to get her hands on that alchemical formulaes.

"Anyway I will allow all of this in exchange for you to do the same with me regarding the way of your own world"

Jaina Replied "Thank you mister Geralt, I promise you will not regret your decision"

"I seriously doubt it, things normally tend to end bad for me, but one can hope"

Jaina felt a little awkward and decided to change subject "So?... Can we take a look of your bestiary?" she asked

"….Sure you may take a look into it" answered the witcher; with the Bestiary in his grasp, he extended his arm toward Jaina offering her the Book.

She made a courteous reverence to offer her thanks to the witcher and grabbed the book, she took a few paces backwards and decided to open it, curiosity beaming inside her, some leaders including; Aegwynn, Rhonin, Varyan, Thrall, Tyrande and Cairne positioned themselves behind Jaina to try to take a look of the book too.

When Jaina opened the book she was awestruck, she had never seen such creatures in her entire life, some were hideous, ugly and terrifying, not even the most grotesque of the murlocks could cause the repulsion that some of this creatures cause to her, and if she felt like this just by looking at depictions of them, she did not want to wonder; how will it be to meet one of this creatures for real.

She was not the only one to have such thoughts as some of the leaders behind her, felt similar emotions.

"By the Light, what kind of monsters are these?"

"Spirits, I have never seen something so hideous in my entire life"

"Elune, not even the Satyrs are so ugly"

The only ones who had managed to hold their semblance where Aegywinn who kept her inquisitive look, taking notice every single piece of information that was displayed, and Rhonin who only shown mildly surprise.

Jaina kept passing the pages and found that not all the creatures were horrible, others looked so cute and pretty, that leave her without breath, when she saw their beauty; That made her feel calm and settled from the first impressions in the witcher's Bestiary, the others leaders felt like her too.

"Beautiful"

"So pretty"

But also not all of the pretty creatures were marked as kind and peaceful; some were mark as disguises that were used to lure unsuspecting victims into a false sense of security, to leave them exposed to the monster bloodthirst, it then displayed its true form and devoured the helpless victim.

That made Jaina felt chills down her spine, certainly the witcher's world was a very dangerous place, nevertheless she was surprise as how thorough this book was, it contained a very deep description of every creature, depicting its habits, demeanors, strengths, weaknesses, abilities, likes, dislikes, environments, practically everything you can't think of for describing someone this book had it in every single of its entries, it was indeed a very well made work.

Aegwynn made her opinion be heard "this is a very impressive piece of work, mister Geralt, I have never seen a book that was so descriptive in its contents, and you said that you have faced all this creatures"

"Yup" was the witcher's answer.

"Remarkable, you certainly are a very impressive individual mister Geralt, you manage to somehow continuously surprise this old woman, and I have seen a lot in this life of mine"

The witcher merely shrugged at that

"You don't seem to care much for praises, do you?" asked Aegwynn.

"Hum, the only thing that praises are good for, is to attract unwanted attention to one self, and that only hinders the carry of my trade". Aegwynn raised an eyebrow at him "Anyhow when and where; are we going to make our share of knowledge; I don't expect you would like it to do it, right here in the middle of a snowy road?"

"You are right mister Geralt, I had not chosen a place to properly carry the exchange of knowledge" stated Jaina a little startled that she had forget about that issue. "I don't think any faction would like to allow members of the other faction to enter in their strongholds here in the wrathgate to carry a proper summit"

"You are right Jaina, besides this is too soon and unexpected, we have came here to discuss strategies, military operations and possibilities for an unified assault at the wrathgate, not politics or lore exchange; siege camps are not build for that sort of things" interjected Varian.

Thrall had also something to say "well that doesn't seem to be much of a trouble, if we want a neutral and safe place here in Northerend there is one option that comes to my mind, although I hope it is not much of a bother to you master Rhonin for such a suddenly demand"

"Is not a bother at all Thrall, I was planning to offer the assistance of the Kirin Tor to settle that matter anyways" Rhonin made signals to his entourage to follow him " come we have to go back to the violet citadel to prepare the accommodations for a proper summit among the faction leaders"

The witcher stands up finally from his sitting position and dust himself off "well, it seems you have everything settled now…. So, where are we going?" he asked.

Jaina looked at the witcher and answered "to Dalaran".

….

In the inside of a great and magnificent hall made of ice and stone, an ethereal winged being was moving through it, this being was composed of a glowing white-bluish orb that acted as his body, surrounded by bones; the thing had several horned skulls that represented his heads, long bone arms and bone wings, he practically had the upper bone structure of his body well defined, of the lower part he had none; he was practically floating due to his lack of legs.

This being was approaching to some kind of throne made of ice; in it was sitting a large humanoid being encased in a massive and intimidating black armor, also wearing a dreary looking helmet that had carvings of a crown.

"I bring news my liege" spoke the phantasmal being with a hollow and empty voice

"Speak Lord Marrowgar" demanded the black armored humanoid.

"One of the scouts that you send last night to investigate the disturbance that you felt, has returned my liege; he informed me that the scout party found a strange individual with the features of a wolf, waiting patiently in the middle of the road, they tried to eliminate him and bring his corpse back here for study, but the individual in question seem to posses great fighting skills, it is with great shame and sadness that I inform you my lord, that the entire scout party was wiped out by this single individual, only one Geist survived"

"That is of no consequence, they serve their purpose, now tell me more of this individual" was the reply of the black armored humanoid.

"The Geist informed me that the individual in question was wearing sturdy black leather armor with a chainmail underneath, his hair and skin were white as snow, and he had a scar in his left eye, his eyes were golden colored like some kind of wild animal, and his facial structure resemble that of a wolf, the Geist informed that he was the fastest being he had ever saw moving, and that the managed to hurt one of the flesh giants with his bare hands"

"…mmm… interesting, although defeating a bunch of ghouls is hardly something remarkable, but being able to go one on one with a flesh giant and succeed; now that is really something that can pick my curiosity" the armored being turned his attention to his right side and spoke towards the gloom and shadows that dwelled within the room "what do you think of this, Kel'Thuzad?"

A creature materialized from the shadows practically from nowhere, just like lord Marrogar this creature was a skeletal being, he had all the upper body bones and form of a human being, the only difference was that his fangs were long and sharp and the thing had long horns on top of his head; because of being a skeleton, he had no flesh or visible organs, just plain-naked bones; the thing had no eyes, just empty black sockets were the eyes should be; it had some kind of ornament headwear covering the back of his head, the creature had no legs instead he was floating in the middle of the air but he was wearing some cloth garbs and tunics attached at his waist, that were covering the empty space where his legs should be, an ice cold mist was seeing escaping from underneath his tunic; His clothes were covered by some strange runic symbols.

The creature spoke in a chilly icy voice "I had never heard of such individual before milord, I believe he may be related or at least he knows something about the great magical outburst that was felted last night; I suggest we should keep an eye on him, find out who he is, maybe we could make him an asset for our forces milord"

"mmmph" muttered the black armored being, while in deep thought "we may require some tests to see if this _man-wolf_can be of use for us; Lord Marrowgar" addressed the black armored being "You will take care of that; make sure to verify if he could be an asset to the scourge and if not, if he is a threat that we should eliminate immediately or just little more of a bother not worthy of the scourge attention; go with professor Putricide and tell him to lend you some of his experiments for this endeavor; Is that clear?"

"Yes milord, it shall be done" Lord Marrowgar made a reverence and departed from the room.

Soon the witcher will have to face against powerful and dreary forces that will threaten to corrupt him, but that's another story, for another time.


	8. Chapter 6 part I

**Author's note:** well here I am after several months of disappearing from radar, I have returned, why it took me so long to update? Well I have no excuse, it was a combination of being the Lazy-ass that I am, and the fact that I lost interest because I was caught in something else, but hey it's not my fault that I lost the interest of updating this story, I have a perfectly sound reason for that, and the reason is; DUNE.

Yes dune, I stumble upon the first book by casualty and I said to myself, well I have not yet read this myself; so let's see what all the fuss for this series of books is about, cause of course I have already heard people saying that this series is great stuff, and until that moment the only thing that I knew about Dune was that it had something to do with the desert and Big ass worms, oh big mistake from my part, I got hook up from the beginning, I mean you just start and just a few pages later and the Gom Jabbar scene happens, now that was freaking awesome, it was a flow of epicness from the start until the end, by the time I finished the first book I had the desire for more.

And that's what I did, getting more of dune, I had to scan through several bookstores and the internet, to get all the books, and when I said all the books, I mean **ALL** of them, that is; the 6 books that compress the original series, the 2 books that are sequels and close that story ark, you know the one when people from the scattering returns and the Benne-Gesserit and Honored Matres become one order, and the race of machines rise anew threatening to destroy humanity.

Anyway, what was I saying? Ah yes the 3 books that compress legends of Dune, you know the Ones who tell about the Bluterian Jihad, the other 3 that are the prelude of the first dune, nice that they are named after the 3 main house, Atreides, Harkonnen (Damn the Harkonnen) and Corrino.

And the 2 books that are interlude, Paul of Dune and The Winds of Dune, I liked this books it's a good thing that Brian Herbert and his co-author friend whom I conveniently just forgot his name, well I later look for it in one of the books covers, anyway it's good that they decided to made this interlude books; in the original series a lot of time passes between book and book, sometimes inside one of the books themselves, and that time is not explained, they just show like a modest glimpse or a brief explanation of it.

That's why I like them they give a more detailed image and is a good background supplement for the original series, it explains the first years of Paul's childhood in Caladan, his time growing with the Fremen, and when he walks alone and blind into the Desert at the end of Messiah, good stuff.

But my favorite will always be The God Emperor of Dune, that's a balls-breaking book; it has everything, excellent story, amazing characters, interesting and thrills chilling arguments and moral implications, damn… it even has comedy, yes I laugh my ass out with THE LORD CAN READ MINDS business; that was hilarious. Leto II Atreides god damn, possible the best character that I had the pleasure to know.

It was kind of a pain in the ass to get all the books especially from internet, most of the time the only format that they sold them was Audio book, and I was hell no, no freaking Audio book for me, I want them printed, I want to be able to read the letters not hearing some random idiot reading them for me; that way I can a have better immersion in the story.

Well, I guess I bored all of you with my ramblings, I'm sure you all saying by now, what's wrong with this dude? I came here to read about the witcher/warcraft crossover and he just keeps babbling about dune.

Well sorry about that, it just so you can know what I been up to this past few months, reading **ALL **the dune books, how much books are in total?, I forgot to count them, let's see…. 16? WOW I've read 16 books in a row, no wonder I have not updated this past months; and hey! that could become a bonus for you, while reading all of this books (because I read them all in English) I have been paying attention for better ways to improve my writing and phrasing of my words, so you can expect that my writing has improve in comparison with previous chapters which mean it will be easier and more comfortable for all of you to read this stuff.

Anyway, time to finish this, oh! man I became a dune fan and addict at the same time, now I can understand why some people say that all the sci-fi works that exist have their roots in either Dune or Isaac Asimov novels (most notably Foundation, Galactic Empire and Robot Series) and its true, after reading all the books I'm seeing references of dune everywhere, I see them in Star Wars, in Warhammer 40k (although here are more prominent Asimov works), in the Saga of the Meta-barons(alongside Asimov again), in Starcraft, in Serenity/Firefly, in Halo, in Stargate, in Fallout (well just name references in this one), in Battle Star Galactica, in Dragon Age, in TES: Morrowind, in TES: Oblivion, hell even in Neil Gaiman's Sandman, even some characters and villains of both Marvel and DC remind me of something that I read in dune

God damn dune is everywhere and I didn't know it until know, I was blind to the truth but now I can see (ok maybe that was a bit too much), but it does give some merit to the phrase "what senses do we lack, that we cannot see the world around us".

Now finally without further delay, the new chapter of **THE WHITE WOLF OF AZEROTH, **for your entertainment and enjoyment.

**Disclaimer: **Yeah, yeah you know the drill; I own nothing, which is good, otherwise I may end up ruining everything.

**CHAPTER 6: NOT A DULL PLACE, AT ALL.**

Part I

His name was Geralt of Rivia, he was a witcher, a professional monster slayer for hire….. And he was bored.

Well… not really, it could not be described as boredom what the witcher was felling right now, he was more rather… annoyed, yes that's exactly how he was felling right now annoyed, and why does the witcher felt annoyed? What drive him to felt that way anyway? which by the way in his efforts for lighting his mood, it has led him here in his current position.

Drinking mug, after mug, after mug, after mug of ale while sitting in a stool chair inside the tavern of the _Cantrips and Crows_, located in the Underbelly of the floating city of Dalaran… Underbelly; what an interesting way for describing the sewers of said city, although said sewers were as big and wide as the walls of a Mausoleum or even a Cathedral ; With ample vaults and half domes as ceilings.

It was quite a surprise really; to have found these place among the filthy, covered by dirt (and who knows what else!) walls of the sewers, there was a complex of establishments very well settled and manned… and surprisingly reasonable clean too. (Despite its unusual choice for location)

This establishments and set ups were many and varied; stands of vendors that were selling their great selection of wares occupied the center of what could be considered the main room of the sewer complex of the city.

The place was quite lively, despite the fact that because of its "_underground_" nature (for lack of a better term, because the city itself was floating in the middle of the skies with great chunks of rock and earth still attached underneath her, how do you suppose to refer to the basement of such a place?... oh yes, Underbelly) No ray of the sun ever touched down there, except filtered from the few manholes in the ceilings, which by the way were the manholes that people up there in the main streets of the city were stomping upon; unmindful of what was going on down here.

Anyway, much of this place illumination came from the torches that the people had attached either in the sewers walls or in the supports of their stands and establishments or at one side of their houses main doors.

Yes; houses, people do seemed to live here too, there were buildings and houses that seemed to be built attached to the walls that surrounded the main market zone, some of those buildings seemed to be not occupied and uninhabited, something that could be worth for later consideration.

Yes; it was quite a bit crowded to, with people buzzing about on their business or in their shopping sprees; hell, this place even had dueling circles, were clandestine fights were staged and people enjoyed placing bets on their chosen or favorite fighter, damn there even was an arena entrance in this place, were winning and losing money was common and the bets were as varied as the participants of the battles just as the result of said battles, from small bits of copper to great mountains of gold, you could certainly make a small fortune in this place.

All around, you could see people flocking in and out, just the same and fast way as money changed from hand to hand, or how the rumor mill and tidbits of information from the city up there were spread through the ears and interest of individuals, this place had a name, they called it the _Circle of Wills_; mmmph lovely.

Now Geralt our dear witcher and protagonist, had previously stumble upon, almost by accident with a pretty interesting corner of this place, it all happened during the night of the third day of his staying in this city.

He was wandering about at the top northeastern corner of the _Circle of Wills_, you know trying to assimilate all that he could of the felling of this place, when he was suddenly contacted by a bearded gnome, who had the looks to be a rascal and a rogue, the gnome told him that if he was tired of the simple and dull products that the boring merchants of this place sold and desired to obtain some more "_exotic_" wares; then he should follow him.

Now, the witcher obviously realized that this gnome was trying to sell him something, what that something was? Could be anyone guess. But because he did not detected any danger from this little fellow, the witcher decided to indulge him, obviously keeping his hand covering his main gold pouch, you always had to be alert for nimble fingers in places like this.

The gnome lead him through a secret door into a small well lit room, with red stands stick by all the length of the side walls and in the wall in the bottom in front of him, with wide rows of tables used for display in the middle of the room, what Geralt found there made him smirk; it seems that he had found the main establishment of the local _Black Market_; rows of weapons of a more subtle nature were here for display, concealable daggers, retractile blades, noiseless arrows and darts, along with equipment for breaking locks, or garbs and clothing to move quietly and unseen, and special equipment for traversing difficult terrain, like metal gloves that allow an excellent grip in stone walls in order to climb them.

There also were dealing with ingredients in this place, but this seemed to be more rare and dangerous than the norm, some of them were of a very virulent nature, no doubt that they were for use in poison making, others, if his senses were not mistaken were the organs and entrails of terrible beasts, some of them expelled a terrible magical energy, no doubt demonic.

Fel magic for sure, archmagister Rhonin and his _Council of Six_ had explain him all that is to know about the demonic magic of the Burning Legion, he was pretty sure that many of the high magisters of Dalaran would found these array of ingredients dangerous and would order the disposal of most them, if not all.

Well that was not of his concern, if somebody wanted to smuggle which such magical compromising and certainly not so safe or legal ingredients, who was he to reproach them? Mind you some of those ingredients could prove something useful and interesting for him, if he used them alongside with a little of witcher alchemy that is; now that's a thought to consider.

The gnome seeing his pleased expression with the wares, boasted about the nature of this establishment and the ample catalog of goods in it; the small fella' inform him that this was the secret location of the _Black Market_ (he had already suspected it as such) and that this place hold everything required to suit and satisfy any needs for either the fellow rogue who wanted to maintain a low profile or for the warlock who required that specific ingredient to ensure the success of his experiments.

Rogues and Warlocks? Well Geralt thought that he certainly didn't have the looks of a warlock, so this little fella' must have confused him by mistake for a Rogue; well he supposed that since no such things as Witchers existed in this world, it is not surprising that people will tend to assume that he was of some of this world known trades, in this case a Rogue.

Well Gerald supposed that if he were to knew nothing about the existence of witchers, he would also commit the mistake of believing that one of them is a Rogue, he certainly had the looks of one, and he certainly knew how to be conspicuous and subtle when the situation demand it, so fine by him, he would certainly not bother to inform the gnome of his mistake, not after he already show him all this stuff, there was a high probability that taking that course of action would result in violence, and he had no desire to kill him or his companions guarding this place.

He could see that the people that was here in charge had taken precautions of making sure that nothing endangered their business, hence the guards, hired muscle that was posted at the exit and underneath each torch, what caught the witcher attention was that they were members of both alliance and horde, there were trolls, humans, orcs, gnomes, goblins and dwarves performing as guards; not surprise in there really, the promise of reward and self fortune could be more seductive that any allegiance or loyalty towards race or nation.

And he would probably had to deal with the costumers too, he could see through the edges of his vision that the people in this place was taking notice of him, keeping an eye on him while at the same time carrying on with their dealings, they were certainly wary about newcomers, well Geralt supposed it was understandable, certainly many of this items were not easy to obtain, and any unknown could compromise the safety of their suppliers, leaving them without a reliable source to obtain such items.

The Witcher clearly was not interested in threaten their relative sense of security, fighting a whole room full of shady people could be messy, and if the council of mages heard word of that. Well he certainly did not know how he would explain to Rhonin the fact that he ended up in a room full of dead people that he probably kill himself, surrounded by a hoard of compromising and possibly dangerous and not entirely legal items and magical artifacts.

That could probably put him in a very disastrous stance with the mages and he certainly did not want that, especially since such mages were his hosts, he was certain that they would take it as a great offense and he could get ended up either incarcerated or expelled from the city, and what kind of image will he be given to the leaders of both alliance and horde.

No; the best course of action was making this people continuing believing him a Rogue, and make sure not to freak them out and if by continuing with this charade, Geralt ended up with some new items and ingredients that could prove useful for him in some way, then even more better for him.

So, the witcher merely decided to answer the gnome boast with a nod, maybe a little praise for the way this place is being run was in order; he thought, it is less likely that the gnome suspected him of not being a Rogue, if he was to full of pride to realize that.

"Indeed it seems that way, this is clearly a very impressive array of items, your people certainly knows how to run a proper establishment"

It seems the gnome had bought his act as he did not take any suspicion about him.

"Well thank you kind sir, I'm glad that you can recognize true quality, when you see it, may I show you our more recent badge, these are brand new ingredients, all fresh and unspoiled, you can see how healthy they are in color and the organs are fresh too, recently harvested, can't you see how some of them are still throbbing? HA, HA and the weapons are newly made too, you can still fell the heat of the furnace in the blade."

The gnome lead the witcher through the room, showing and describing him a great deal of different items, in the end the witcher decided for some concealable daggers, he still had his swords and a great deal of his throwing knifes, but it never hurts to have something to surprise your enemies with, he also bought some equipment for dealing with any closed door, you never known were you may end up stuck or when would you need an easy exit or hiding place.

The witcher also buy himself a dark cloak, in case he may sometime needed to maintain a low profile, certainly a totally albino man of skin and hair was not something that the people of this world were used to see, but most importantly, he bought himself a variety of ingredients, some poisonous herbs, and a few demonic organs and undead remains, it's true that some of this items were magical, but witcher alchemy is excellent to manipulate any type of ingredient, this organs will give him the tissues necessaries to experiment in creating some kind of oil that would really create damage inside the demons bodies; not to mention the undead.

His necrophage oil was good against the small ones, but proved ineffective against others like the flesh giants, who kept attacking and fighting with the same ferocity, and did not hinder in any way despite the wounds he inflict on them; he needed something that could stopped them in their tracks, or at least hinder them a little.

Presently he just bought a few of such items, nothing so extravagant, just some organs of felhounds, and felguards and remains of some abominations, as they were common enough (Rhonin and Lord Fordring had brief him about the creatures that the Scourge employed), the witcher supposed that he may encounter those creatures soon enough, and he wanted to be ready for when that happens.

He paid for all of this items and stored them, the daggers concealed under his clothes, the ingredients alongside the rest of the others that he used for alchemy (those had to be extra wrapped, don't want the magisters to find about them), and the equipment and cloak in his main bag on the left side of his body.

The gnome was satisfied with their dealings, he did not care that the coins that he used to pay were emblazoned with the coat of arms of several of the northern kingdoms, he didn't even ask about it, gold was gold and he made sure that his coins were of made real gold by taking a bite on them (he would probably melt them later anyway).

"Thanks for making business with us lad, if you ever find yourself in need of something special for your endeavors, you know where to find us, and if you have some friends that require of our special services, make sure to tell them about us".

The witcher nodded at him "I will make sure to remember that, goodbye for now" he told him and continued on his way, going towards the exit.

That had been an interesting and very prolific experience, but that was not what he liked the most about the Underbelly, no! The best about the Underbelly was the place where he was right now trying to lift his mood, the _Cantrips & Crows_ a very enjoyable establishment, located into the southwest of the _Circle of Wills_, it was very well build place, entirely made out of wood, the walls, the floor, the ceilings and support, the chairs, stools, tables, desks, etc; everything was carved out of wood.

The _Cantrips & Crows_ was an entire complex of establishments that rested on top of a wooden platform lifting it several foots from the ground level, hence the need of those small stairs at each of the entrances; The complex consisted of a Tavern (Gerald's favorite place), an Inn (not that he needed one, because the mages were giving him hosting, nevertheless something to consider for future references), and a bank (a nearby branch, close for his comfort, good enough since he already had opened his own bank account about 6 days ago, up there in the city's _Eventide_ district, no reason for him to be moving around with his pocket filled with his thousands pieces of Gold, that's just asking of trouble)

The witcher liked this place, it had a thing to it, people came and spend his money to drown their sorrows after losing a bet, if they still had money that is (really it was a smart move to build this place close to the Arena and dueling circles), the atmosphere was quite lovely too, here is where people went when trying to blend and not draw attention to themselves, it was so easily to lose yourself in its atmosphere swings.

Here is where the latest news and rumors ended up filtered from the city above, if something was happening in the city, you could find someone down here that knew about it, if you needed information about something or someone in particular, this was the place where you had to go; if you needed to find a very special object, or if you had something that you needed to move without drawing attention, here you will find the means to ensure it.

Clearly the Underbelly was the place where you wanted to be, this is the place where you had to go if you wanted to get things done, that is why Geralt like it down here, this is where his kind of people dwelled.

How did Geralt found this place? Well it all started when he arrived in Dalaran 10 days ago in the company of the lovely lady Jaina Proudmoore and the rest of the Horde and alliance leaders, they arrived through a magical portal that lady Jaina opened using her magical talents, (and she is quite talented indeed), and arrived inside the place that is called the _Violet Citadel, _an immense fortress in the heart of the city of Dalaran, that serves as the main headquarters and place of learning for the Kirin Tor, it was a very large place, with vast halls, ample domes and imposing towers, all of them illuminated by magical light that came out from glowing crystals.

It was quite obvious why this place was called the _Violet Citadel, _everything was painted in that color scheme, the curtains, the banners, the crystals of light, the ceilings, hell even the uniforms that the mages wore where of that color scheme and also all of them were emblazoned with the symbol of an eye on them (clearly the Kirin Tor coat of arms).

Rhonin and his _council of six _(odd that there were just 4 in total) were waiting for them already, alongside a bunch of some others mages, after a brief exchange of pleasantries, in which the witcher was introduced to the council of mages.

That's when he met Archmage Modera, a sorceress of short brown hair wearing armor with golden embroidery and blazed with the eye symbol of Dalaran, she was carrying a staff with a crystal floating at his tip.

Next was Archmage Aethas Sunreaver supposedly a Blood Elf although Geralt could not rightly tell because he was encased completely in a metal armor wearing some kind of mask or helmet that covered his face completely, and had that eye symbol carved in the middle of his face; Geralt was not certain that he was able to look at the outside world with that mask on, at least not with his eyes, but with magic?…. You never knew.

And finally; Veressa Windrunner, Rhonin's wife and mother of his children, she was an attractive high elf maiden, of white hairs just like his own, and piercing blue eyes (nice catch by Rhonin, was the witcher opinion).

Now, as soon as Geralt saluted Rhonin's wife he could not resist to look toward were Sylvanas was standing, after all he remembered that her surname was too Windrunner, so he suspected that maybe those 2 were related.

Lady Veressa followed the witcher gaze and as soon as her eyes met those of Sylvanas, he could swear that the room's temperature dropped by several degrees. (It was quite odd, really).

Now this was a practically a very uncomfortable situation, practically all life and talking had gone mute, everybody I mean everybody, had their mouths shut, both alliance and horde leaders, Rhonin and the rest of his council and the others bunch of mages that were moving on their business before anybody arrived; every single one of them had anxious looks on their faces, looking toward the silent staring match between Veressa and Sylvanas; it was like if time had completely stopped just for those 2 to look at each other.

Now the witcher, certainly not understanding why suddenly the mood turned so sour, had to raise his doubts.

"At expense to look like a fool, I have to ask, what's the deal with those 2? Clearly it seems that they know each other"

The witcher's inquiry certainly did nothing to improve the general mood, many started to make silent groans or doing facepalms in an attempt to spare themselves from having to deal with this situation.

Jaina was quickly whispering at his side "Sylvanas is Veressa older sister, she didn't know until recently that Sylvanas had died and return back to life as a Banshee and joined the horde, also Veressa is loyal to the alliance"

The witcher took a few seconds to let that information to settle in and when it did, all he could say was…

"Oh… Bugger"

So all that Geralt could do was keep his mount shut, in an attempt to not worsening the situation any more than already was and watch alongside the others how those 2 were coldly staring at each other.

Finally, after a time that felt like an eternity Veressa addressed his sister in an emotionless dry tone.

"Sylvanas"

Sylvanas replied in an evenly tone.

"Veressa"

Now for some reason everybody expected something akin as a demonic invasion suddenly bursting through, but that was not going to happen as Veressa spoke again.

"It's been a long time….." Veressa closed his eyes and made something close a mental sigh before continuing.

"….Sister"

Sylvanass took a few seconds before answering.

"Yes, it is….." She turned her head at a side and without looking at Veressa she added.

"….Sister"

Veressa pursed her lips and lowered her head, she tried to speak again but quickly closed her mouth; instead just a muffled yelp was heard, she had to gather her wits for a few seconds and slowly and weakly she said.

"…I… I missed you"

Sylvanas turn her gaze at Veressa again, clearly surprised by her sister statement, she blinked and stand just there without doing anything for a few seconds, then slowly she closed her eyes and scowled, hard; but not because she was mad at Veressa, more like she was mental scolding herself.

Then her features softened and she opened her eyes once more looking at her sister again, with a look in her eyes of something that resembled kindness; and the ghost of a smile appearing briefly in her lips.

This... kind of greatly surprised or disturbed, several of the people present, who had just know Sylvanas as the Ice cold hearted bitch banshee queen, leader of the undead forsaken, but just for this brief moment and just only to her sister, she was no longer the Banshee Queen, just for a moment she let her guard down and showed a faint glimpse of the person that she used to be in life.

Sylvanas replied "I missed you too".

Veressa looked up at her sister again, and seeing her softened features made her remember of more pleasant times, when she was nothing but a little girl and with the eldest of her Sisters Alleria being far away in a distant war, that leaved her with only Sylvanas to look after her.

Such memories made her to faintly smile, something that was not lost to anybody, least of all her sister; it seemed that both sisters had managed to found a mutual understanding; sadly there was no time for the sisters to mend their relationship; there was a lot to be done.

Rhonin coughed to draw the attention back to himself.

"Well, I think the time for pleasantries has run out, come all you; let me show you to your accommodations"

He tapped the shoulder of his wife and signaled her that it was time to move; Veressa looked at her husband and after a few seconds of silent discussion, she nodded at him; Veressa casted a last glimpse toward her sister.

"It's good to see you again" she said; before turning and following her husband.

Slowly one by one, the people standing in the main hall of the _Violet Citadel_ started to leave, either to carry own on their bussines, in the mages case or to follow Rhonin, in the leaders case, only Sylvanas stayed behind.

Sylvanas lower her head and a small amount of sadness crept into her face.

"Good to see you too" she said to just an empty space.

Sylvanas then straighten herself, and all the emotions that she had allowed herself to show; were forcibly pushed back inside, replacing them with a mask of coldness and once more she became the Banshee Queen.

Sylvanas then moved to follow the others, unaware of her passing right in front of the warchief who had bore witness of her change; Thrall watched her go feeling sorry for her, he would have probably never know of the conflict of emotions that were occurring inside of her, he would from now on see Sylvanas in a different way; Although right now he didn't know what to think or do about this.

Thrall look at a side to see the witcher watching him, it seemed that he knew what he was thinking, for he addressed to him.

"Come on; time to move on, there is nothing that could be do right now, there are after all other things to dealt with first, there while be time later for ponder about this, right now, all we could do is taking note of it for future references"

With that, the witcher turned and went toward where Rhonin was leading the rest of the leaders.

Thrall simply stayed where he was and sighed, he looked at his surroundings while thinking for a few moments, before looking once more toward were the witcher had gone and whispered.

"…future references?" with that the warchief moved to follow the rest of the troupe.

…

**Note: **Sorry but I will have to cut it short right here, this chapter had turn out to be a long one, and I'm still haven't finished with giving it all the details; and I wanted to put the update right now.

If you want to know what is that have Geralt so annoyed or how is he discovered the Underbelly you will have to wait for the next part of this chapter.

And well…. is very long, if I believe that still, not all of the details are complete I may have to split it in more parts.

….mmm… maybe I should make my updates like that.

Instead of single chapters that although long, it take me a lot of time to finish and update, I should divide them in smaller parts that although not very long are updated more quickly; what do you think?

And I know that many of my descriptions are not like the ones in-game; like the one I made of the Underbelly or the Black Market, but let's face it in real life such places will be clearly more different, Black Markets are not places where people sell, weapons or objects for certain types of trades, they are places were many illegal and dangerous things are sold, and the people in charge makes sure to have a tight surveillance of it.

So when I'm making my descriptions of places, I imagine how those places should be or function in real life.

If you hate it I'm sorry really, but that's just me taking liberties and if you don't hate it, well I hope you like it.

And do not worry, this time it would not take me months to make the next update, I have relatively free time to write now, so I'm positive that either I will made the next update this weekend, or I will making it starting the next week; so no pressure there.

And about Sylvanas shown of emotions, I do believe that she will act something like that if there were some kind of reunion of her with her sister.

She did sang that lament for all the elves that died when silvermoon was destroyed by the scourge, and she puts patrols that survey the borders of nowadays silvermoon.

So she is capable of emotion, I do believe that if she and her sister were to meet each other again, Sylvanas would break; and besides Veressa still loves Sylvanas, she mourned her passing and when their cousin called Sylvanas "Banshee", she berate at him for calling her as such.

BTW.- Thanks to KoNoSeKai for telling me were the witcher section was located


	9. Chapter 6 Part II

CHAPTER 6: NOT A DULL PLACE, AT ALL

PART II

**Author's note: **I'm sorry for not being able to put this update at the time I had previously intended, I was delayed for matters in my work and college; but all that is already been taken care of, it should not cause any more interruptions.

Anyway here's the second part of this chapter, it's been pretty laborious for me to do it, since I want to really make a good description of Dalaran, I hope I haven't missed anything important of the city, and since it will be too much to me to describe every single bit and cranny of Dalaran, I'm just gotta have to make a brief mention of some of them.

Also since this is all parts of the same chapter I'm not going put the narrator opening and ending I'm just going to put one of them per chapter, well enough of that, here's the next part.

**Disclaimer: **Why do I always have to put this? I mean, it is quite obvious that me, just some average dude cannot possibly be the owner of any of the copyrights of this 2 series.

…..

After showing to their accommodations Rhonin decided to take Geralt and the rest of the leaders in a guided tour through the city, he of course, inform them first of his intended course of action, to make sure all of them were comfortable with the idea.

Although, several of them didn't seen the point for such excursion, they did were reminded that the witcher was a newcomer, so they assumed that it was for that reason that Rhonin wanted to take them in a city tour (it would do no good that Geralt ended up getting lost in a city foreign to him, they assumed; unmindful of the witcher's excellent sense of orientation; decades in the wilds tend to sharp your own skills in certain areas of expertise, one of them in how to avoid getting lost); so they agree, deciding that they could use the occasion to raise questions pertaining their new arrival or answer the ones he may had, depending of the case.

And so the witcher was taken in a trip to get acquainted with the city of Dalaran (although he would have preferred to do that on his own) , it was quite a big city full of magnificent white towers with violet domes, all of them ending in a long needle shape in their tips; all the rest of lesser buildings where too of white colors with violet colored ceilings (The people here really seemed to like that color) this buildings had no edges, they had a dome shape with lesser domes for ceilings (impossible to forget their violet color, Geralt had the impression that he was going to end up getting sick of that color really soon) they all looked quite clean and neat, but for some reason this buildings reminded him (for some odd reason) of mushrooms, nevertheless, it really looked quite ordered the layout of this city.

Anyway, the first stop was the runeweaver square; a plaza roughly in the center of the city, the fountain was a nice touch, although he was not particular fond of its magical staff shape, they even put some cyan crystals in it to make sure that it looked like a real staff.

But nevermind about the odd design in decoration, it was a lovely trip nonetheless, he had the opportunity to walk alongside the charming lady Jaina, and she also proved to be very helpful with advices, while Rhonin was explaining the history behind each sight and of the city itself, Jaina also was giving him a little more wide explanation about them, most of it of how the city and it sights used to be during her days of study under the tutelage of Archmage Antonidas.

The witcher noticed during the trip, that Sylvanas and Veressa were walking at earshot distance of each other, although none of the two were showing any indication that they were doing nothing else than simply following the group, Geralt was sure that there was some kind of silent conversation going on between the sisters; he decided not to dwell in that, that kind of affairs where none of his business or area of expertise.

The witcher was surprised when Rhonin told him that they had moved the entire city from his original location and putt it afloat over the skies of Northerend, wanting to see if it was true, he told Rhonin to prove it to him; So Rhonin lead all the group to a place called Krasus' Landing, a place for arrival in the city through the use of flying mounts (apparently the people of this world had tamed several flying beasts and used them for fast traveling through regions, really clever from their part)

The place was nothing more than a massive circular landing pad, with great pillars in several places of its circumference that had great banners and chains hanging from them; all the circumference of the pad was covered by a small stone fence (probably to avoid getting people from falling out of the edge)

The place was kind of busy, with people of different races arriving and leaving in winged creatures from the like Geralt had never seen, although there were some that he recognized like the griffons.

In any case, this place was being attended by a dwarf flight master and his attendants, who took record of all the incomings and leavings from the city; Rhonin indicated Geralt toward the stone fence at the edge of the landing pad, so he approached it while taking notice that Rhonin and the rest of the group of leaders where solely focusing on him (probably expecting to see what will it be his reaction, he will have to disappoint them from their expectancies of seeing him making any display of emotion)

The witcher rested the weight of his upper body on top of the fence, so he could be able to take a look of what lay at the other side, and what he found; was a breathtaking scenery.

The entire city was suspended above the clouds; from his position, the witcher could only see rows and rows of clouds that covered completely the sight of any land that may laid down there, although there were some open patches in the clouds that allowed him to take a glimpse of an ice covered land; but predominantly it was just a sheet of whiteness that collided in the horizon with the eternal blue of the sky.

Despite the beauty of the scenery, the only visible expression that the witcher made was a small twitch of the muscles of his right eye.

"Typical of mages" was all he said.

Behind him several faint sighs were heard, clearly some of the leaders were disappointed for his lack of emotion (this outcome is not surprising, since is really hard to make a witcher to shown any kind of emotion at all)

Geralt crossed his arms and addressed Rhonin "Any particular reason for you and your crew of mages to do this?"

"It was necessary after the reconstruction of the city, since our previous location had already proved to be unsafe, and our services were required for this war against the Scourge, so is not that surprising that we moved our base of operations here at the frontlines…"

Rhonin look at a side and rubbed the back of his neck before adding

"…... Among other reasons"

"What other reasons?" the witcher pressed

"Dragons"

The witcher raised an eyebrow, did Dalaran was often attacked by dragons during the time were it was on the ground? Geralt need it to know more.

"Care to explain"

Rhonin proved dismissive "Not now, I will prefer not to speak of this in a public space; later, when we get back on the citadel, I will explain you everything; for now, let's just continue with the tour"

Geralt decided to let the issue pass, but he was certainly going to demand explanations, later.

"Fair enough, lead the way"

Rhonin nodded at him and signaled for the rest of the group to follow him.

Geralt made his way toward Jaina's side and gently ask her.

"Any particular piece of information, that you could help me with, about this? My fair lady"

Jaina took a glimpse at Geralt while walking, after briefly collecting her thoughts she answered.

"I don't want to speak at Rhonin's back, but…. Let's just say it is not only the scourge that holds the attention of the Kirin Tor in this region… I.. I'm sorry mister Geralt but I should not be saying anything else at Rhonin's expense, he will tell you all that you want to know, when he fell is right"

The witcher comforted the young sorceress "Is not trouble at all milady; you have proved to be of great help on this matter already, sorry for having disturbed you"

Jaina smiled faintly at the witcher's charm

"It was no trouble at all, mister Geralt"

With that they continued walking alongside the rest of the group, allowing Geralt to ponder in his thoughts; "_So; there is something wrong about the dragons in this region"_ he thought "_I will have to keep an eye and ear on this"_

The rest of the tour proved uneventful, the next stop was the _Eventide _district, that's is where he took notice of the bank, the _Dalaran Merchant's Bank_ where he later would open an account and store his money, and found for his delight, that this plaza had a normal looking fountain, something that was of his like, despite that crystal sculpture thing floating at the top of the fountain (Gerald don't really cared much about embellishments, magical or otherwise)

Through all that time, besides Rhonin descriptions of his city, Geralt was able to make questions about the culture and history of the other races; which were answered to him by several of the leaders, whom they too raised questions about his world and his trade.

Some of the questions and answers sometimes caused a little tension and friction among the leaders, but they managed to keep their temperament low; now that was surprising; maybe this was possible because Garrosh was not here, as he had refused to accompany Thrall into Dalaran and instead stayed back in the Kor'kron Vanguard; most probably because he still felt mad towards Geralt and Varok, but it was for this same reason that Dranosh Saurfang was here accompanying his father Varok and the warchief.

But Garrosh was not the only one that stayed behind, because the alliance military camp; Fordragon Hold could not be leaved without a leader in charge, the man whose name bear the encampment, Bolvar Fordragon, stayed too back there to muster the troops.

Geralt had barely exchanged words with him, but the man looked quite capable for the task, the witcher could tell that from the brief moments that he had lay eyes on him, you could see it in his face that lord Fordragon was a veteran of several armed conflicts, the way he moved that told of proud and duty, and the booming voice that would made troops to follow him to whatever end.

Yes, Lord Fordragon looked quite capable, but he also was not the only one who was not present, the last one was the man of the dreary looking armor with horns, Darion Mograine, who had stayed back to keep an eye over the duties of both the Argent Crusade and the Order of Knights of the Ebon Blade; there was something about that man that made Geralt suspicious.

He felt with Mograine the same felling that he had when he was looking at Sylvanas, he suspected him of being undead, his suspicions proved correct when he questioned Lord Fordring about Mograine just before departing to Dalaran.

Lord Fordring told him that Darion was indeed just like Sylvanas, undead, but he also told him that Mograine was someone that can be trusted upon, he had just suffered many tragic events in his life, thus Lord Fordring had spoke to the witcher about Mograine's past.

Apparently he was a Death Knight, the fallen twisted counterpart of the Paladins and as any other Death Knight; he had served the lich king, killing, raping and destroying in his name, that is, until the day that the Lich King ordered the destruction of a Holy Place located in a region called Tyr's Hand; Light's Hope Chapel, a place that served as a base of operations for the Argent Dawn and safe haven and moral support for the alliance troops in the region.

When the Lich king launched a second attempt to destroy the place, Mograine was the man to lead the assault; Surprising was the fact that Darion had died defending that place during the first attempt to raze it, fighting alongside Lord Fordring and making the ultimate sacrifice by using the blessed sword of his father, the Ashbringer on himself; with this act of self-sacrifice out of love for his father and beliefs about the justness of his cause; Mograine unleashed the righteous fury of the thousands spirits of the Knights that had died during the defense of that place, it was both a victory and a defeat for the followers of the Light that day, they had managed to destroy the Scourge troops that were threatening the region, but at cost of losing Darion to the enemy, whom then raised him back as a Death Knight into the service of the Lich King, (Now, that was just wrong)

During the second battle for Light's Hope Chapel, Lord Fordring confronted Darion at the gates of Light's Hope Chapel, destroying completely the scourge minions and overwhelming Mograine and his Death knights, who had no other option but surrender to the Argent Dawn and the remaining knights of the Silver Hand.

Lord Fordring berated Mograine for his actions, trying to make him remember the cause that he once fought for and to making him gaze at the depths of his treason, but that proved ineffective as Mograine acted defiant toward Lord Fordring, but suddenly the soul of Darion's father, Alexandros that was trapped inside the Ashbringer was released, Darion was trapped by the influence of his father soul forcing him to revive with him the memory of an event past.

It was the moment when Alexandros decided to join in the war against the Lich king, leaving his son behind; a young Darion then pledge to his father to took him along, to let him fight at his side against the growing threat of the Scourge, he told him he would not disappoint him that he will fight until his last breath, that he would not let the scourge to lay waste to their home; Alexandros refused saying it was too dangerous, that there was a great possibility for both of them ending up dead, Darion retorted to him that if they should to die, then they should die together; together father and son fighting without showing fear against the tides of the undead.

Alexandros witnessing the courage of his son, remained adamant that Darion should stay, saying that he was to live, for he was destined to become a champion of the light one day, greater than himself, for one day Darion was to wield the Ashbringer.

When the memories displaying in front of the surviving troops of Light's hope chapel reached that moment, The Lich King himself Arthas Menethil made act of presence in the battlefield and used his sword Frostmourne to consume Alexandros's soul, damning him forever as a slave of the Lich King.

Darion getting out of his trance, quickly realized the depth of the Lich king betrayal; this made Mograine to enter in a rage, a rage against the Lich King for lying to him and using him as a pawn, but most importantly a rage against himself for having betrayed his father memory at becoming that which he had sworn to fight against.

Mograine demanded an explanation but the Lich King, dismissed his accusations saying that he didn't care absolutely about the life of one of his pawns, he revealed to Mograine that he was nothing more than a tool for him, a tool that had outlived his usefulness, that's why he send him to lead the Charge into Light's Hope Chapel, expecting that he along the forces under his command would die at the hands of the defenders; as all this was only a ruse to bring Lord Fordring out of hiding, for the Lich King considered him a threat great enough, to be destroyed by any means necessary.

Mograine enraged attacked his former master, but the Lich King beat him easily, the remnants of the forces of the Argent Dawn, Knights of the Silver Hand and Darion's Death Knights launched themselves to attack the Lich King; but the powers of the Lich King could not be bested by them, he rebuke them all as easily as he had do it with Darion, in an act of desperation Darion tossed his sword, the corrupted version of the Ashbringer to lord Fordring who manged to purify the corrupted blade and filled with a righteous fury toward the Lich King, Lord Tirion engaged him in singular combat.

Lord Fordring also had told Geralt during his tale about the Ashbringer, first a crystal of pure dark energy that drew its power completely from the shadows but that was later purified , he told him how when Alexandros first discovered it, the crystal was used as a beacon of darkness, then Mograine's father show it to him and others of the High lords of the Knights of the Silver Hand, who fearful of the immense dark power of the crystal, attempted to destroy it, they attacked the crystal with several holy spells but instead of destroying it, the crystal absorbed them, this action seemed to have purified the crystal from its darkness, for in that moment it started to glow with the warmth of the light, the crystal had become its opposite a source of divine power.

It was decided then that from this crystal a weapon would be forged that would smite the undead with such power that only a cloud of ash would remain in its wake, thus the weapon name would be The Ashbringer.

Alexandros delivered the crystal to King Magni Bronzebeard who forged the Ashbringer using the crystal, with his new weapon Alexandros set himself to the task of waging war to the Scourge wherever he find them, becoming a terrible and dreaded enemy to the scourge, while at the same time becoming a symbol of hope for the people of Lordaeron.

Lord Tirion then informed Geralt that he stopped to receive news about Alexandros after a while, he did not know of his fate until Alexandros son, Darion found him a couple of years later and informed him of Alexandros fate.

Apparently Alexandros was lead into an ambush by his other son, Renault who had betrayed him to the scourge, Alexandros fought with all his might against the tides of the undead who leaved him tired and drained of his strength, Renault took opportunity in that moment to kill Alexandros using his own sword against him, this horrible act of treason corrupted the Ashbringer.

Alexandros then was raised as a Death knight in the service of the Lich King by Kel' Thuzad (Arthas right hand according to Lord Tirion) Darion then leaded by a vision went to the undead controlled city of Naxxramas, there he found his father and tried to reasoned with him, but the hold of the scourge over Alexandros was too great, in the end Darion was forced to reluctantly kill his father in order to release him from the Scourge control.

That was the moment when Alexandros soul was trapped inside the Ashbringer, which passed into Darion's hands, from inside the Ashbringer, Alexandros's soul managed to guide Darion where his brother Renault was dwelling.

Darion confronted his brother about their father's death, but Reanult lashed out and attempted to kill Darion, but before he was able to do so, the soul of Alexandros appeared from the Ashbringer and took physical manifestation, Renault begged to his father for forgiveness, and he indeed forgave his son by cutting his head off.

Despite all this the Ashbringer remained corrupted, not even when Darion sacrificed his own life at Light's Hope Chapel did the Ashbringer get rid of its corruption, it will continue to remain in that state; that this until that moment that Lord Tirion took hold of the weapon during the second battle of Light's Hope Chapel, purifying the blade anew.

Geralt had kept his opinions to himself; truth is he wasn't someone who had much interest in religion, such things as holy artifacts were out of his area of expertise, with that notion in mind, he had thought that this whole tale about holy relics, righteousness, self-sacrifice and redemption was like one of those stories that are depicted in sermons that priests tend to lecture about among the populace.

Yes Geralt could imagine it pretty well; it would sound something like this:

"and in an act of pure faith, trusting his life to the light, he plunged his sword into his own chest, sacrificing his own life in exchange of the destruction of the undead menace, with this act he unleashed the fury of the thousands souls of the righteous champions that had fallen in the preservation of the light, they brought down the divine retribution upon the heads of the enemies of the light for their wickedness, and erased any trace of their existence and evil ways from the face of the earth."

Yep just like that, in reality Geralt never paid much heed to those things; but seeing the sad and hurt expression that was displayed by Lord Fordring for remembering those events; made Geralt to be very delicate with what he said, realizing that this were not the babblings of an old priest, but a true experience that people had endured and lived through it.

Another fact to carry weight in that way of thinking, despite the fact of how far-fetched all of this story sounded, was the fact of how Lord Tirion was telling it, he was not using embellished words or complex sentences to tell his tale, he rater just stated the facts and gave insights that could be easy for understanding, he keep it simple and took his time to remember it when there was something unpleasant to him.

Geralt did not doubt that if Lord Fordring so desired it, he could tell the story the same way the priests tell their sermons; after all Lord Fordring looked like a well versed and literate person; certainly a Paladin must have a great knowledge of culture and religion besides their mastery in the arts of war.

This made Geralt to think about how much truth those sermons really held, perhaps there were really depicting actual events, but they were distorted and exaggerated through the passing of centuries.

In any case, with the now purified Ashbringer in his hands Lord Fordring battled against the Lich King, and because Lord Fordring had the advantage of being in a holy place and carrying a sacred weapon, he managed to repel the Lich King forcing him to leave Light's Hope Chapel.

Lord Tirion then brought back Darion into consciousness; then Tirion lamented the loss of life in both sides of the conflict, as it just seemed that it was an unnecessary waste, Tirion called for a merging of forces between the Argent Dawn and the remnant knights of the Silver Hand, so that together may brought an end to the evil reign of The Lich King, and succeed were so many others had failed; from that moment their combined forces would be known as The Argent Crusade, and their purpose will be to wage war to the Lich King and his Scourge, until the undead menace is completely obliterated.

Then Mograine too made an oath; that he will fight with all his strength and that of the Death knights under his command, against the Lich King and his Scourge and that he will not leave Northerend until the Lich King and every single last of his minions were destroyed, thus separating Mograine and his forces from that of the Scourge with this act of rebellion.

Darion then renamed the forces under his command as the Knights of the Ebon Blade, who became powerful allies of the Argent Crusade in their war efforts against the Scourge; war that still rages on.

Geralt decided not to judge Mograine's actions, he was the last person to ask about matters of redemption and forgiveness, everybody carries his own burdens; he would not pry about how Darion dealt with his own.

How odd for Geralt to be remembering that discussion in this particular moment, well regardless of how Geralt felt about that matter, this was not the time to be dwelling in such memories, so the witcher decided to focus back his attention on the leader's discussions.

Thrall was proving to be quite the diplomat, managing to always act in a civilized manner and taking care of not antagonizing the other leaders, if he was found himself in a tight spot Jaina was quickly at his side to help him.

It would also seem that he had good relationships with some of the alliance leaders, namely lady Tyrande, there seemed to be a kind of mutual respect between her and Thrall, and he also seemed to have a close friendship with Jaina, when Geralt inquired about it, he was told that it was because they had fought alongside each other's side during the final battle of the third war, only through cooperation did they managed to stop the advancing invading forces of both the Burning Legion and The Scourge.

And it seemed that those relationships managed to endure after the war (no doubt that such relationships were strain to its maximum because of the current tensions between factions)

The others leaders were also not particularly ill intended toward their horde counterparts, Varian, King Magni, Tinker Mekkatorque and Prophet Velen even though they were not particularly fond of the horde (no doubt because of their past history), they made no objection of trying to find a diplomatic solution or even work alongside certain horde leaders, like Thrall, Cairne or Vol'Jin (who they seemed to be the most calmed and understanding of all the horde leaders) but were highly wary or despiteful of others like Sylvanas or Lor'themar; Well, except Varian and Velen, that for some reason didn't acted wary at the presence of Lor'themar, unlike Veressa who tended to glare daggers at him (how strange to see elves hating each other) in order to avoid trouble Lor'themar positioned himself in a way were he could use Sylvanas presence as a buff for Veressa's mood, who could not dare to act temperamental in the presence of her sister.

Nevertheless, despite their grudges, that was something that greatly surprised the witcher; to see several members of different races, putting behind their differences (albeit temporary) in order to ensure the safety of their world; such things never happened back in his world, the humans always tended to antagonize the other races, the most civilized interaction that they had with them was; either just a grudgingly tolerance of their presence (in case of the dwarves, and gnomes since they were merchants, artisans and engineers), or openly hate and distrust (in the case of the elves)

And the other races don't do nothing to improve their relationships either; the elves were always raiding and terrorizing villagers, farms and roads, they had such a hate for humanity that their normal way of thinking was to kill any human at first sight, whether be man, woman or children.

That seemed to not be the case in this world, were enemies could work and help each other for the greater good, this city itself was prove of that as Rhonin told him that Dalaran is a neutral town, with both Horde and Alliance forces under a same roof; and of course Rhonin's marriage in itself was another proof, his wife was an elven maiden; such relationships were normally unheard of and highly unlikely in the Northern Kingdoms, not that Geralt has been deprived of the pleasure of been in the company of an elven lady, but that was something really tricky to accomplish, there was more grudge than love in those encounters, although there were exceptions, it's not like half-elves did not existed in his world, they did were around, but normally they were born as result of rapes or forced encounters, which made half-elves to be shun by both races of his parents….. well unless you live in either Nilfgaard or one of his provinces (odd that the greatest enemy of any free kingdom is also a practitioner of tolerance among races)

Obviously, the witcher also suspected that this world had also his own share of racial violence and hate; he was certain that somewhere in this world someone must be suffering because of it, there is never such thing as absolute peace, he could see the racial hate and tensions in the faces of the leaders, they were plain enough in showing their emotions, it's just that here the level of racial hate had not reach the same magnitude as on his world, here at least were people in charge who will not let their personal grudges interfere with their common sense.

The Witcher mentioned this to the leaders and because he said it on such a nice and calm manner, the leaders believed that they were being complimented by him, something that leaved them kinda astonished.

That was because the witcher had seldom made any comment about the sights and places they were seeing, most of the interaction they had with him were just direct questions or answers from different topics, and now he had just coming up saying, practically out of the blue that they had a much better predisposition and tolerance of other races than those of the people of his world.

Rhonin was amused "Well, it's kind of you for noticing it mister Geralt, it raises my hopes for an understanding and peaceful relationship among the factions; to know that it is possible for all races to be able to coexist among themselves, now that is an endearing thought"

Veressa not completely sharing the optimism of his husband raised a question.

"But surely there must be some amount of cordiality among the races of your world, is it not? I doubt that they could be constantly open to hostilities, they clearly had to realize that you cannot always have the resources or man power to afford an open conflict"

The witcher bristled at that "Gathering resources or wealth for the kingdoms of my world is not complicated, most of the rulers tend to amass fortunes by exploiting the citizens out of every single of their belongings, and they simple leave them to fend for themselves after that, not caring whether they live or die, and of course with their wealth they can maintain a respectable military force for their own protection.

It's a common sight to see entire villages and towns choked by poverty, that`s pretty much of what decorates the landscape of my world, only the main seats of power are well maintained, because the rulers tend to show their wealth in blatant displays of luxury, and of course corruption is a constant in those places.

It is easier for the oppressed populace to turn their frustrations over the other races, and it gives the kingdoms a scapegoat for their actions as it keeps the populace attention away from important matters, making them easier to control.

That is why many kingdoms promote the prosecution and harassing of non-humans, although not necessary such edicts need to be approved by the king to be enacted, there are good kings that are wise and just, but not even they are able to stop the corruption of the landlords and fiefs."

King Magni was appealed "What kind of horrible place ye'r world sound to be, lad? I cannot fathom how someone would implement such tyranny on yei'r own subjects by committing atrocities against other races"

Jaina was horrified too "Indeed, such oppression and hostility, how can someone live in a place like that?"

The witcher looked at her impassibly " it depends of the crystal which you see it, in the northern kingdoms hostilities between nordlings and non-humans are common, there are exceptions of course not always do the marginalized peasants believe all the slander against non-humans and sometimes they take pity on them, taking care of their health when they are wounded and close to death or feeding them in their times of need, these actions made the non-humans to reconsider the views they have of humanity in general; there have been sighs of non-humans coming to aid the people that took care of them, normally when authorities discovered they had helped non-humans and for that they charge them with treason (this part made many of the leaders with their mouths agape; helping others races in need is considered as an act of treason) the non-humans then help their former saviors to escape and to find a new home.

But that is just the case in the northern kingdoms, in Nilfgaard things are different, there coexistence among races do exist"

Varian was confused by that "Nilfgaard? Didn't you say that Nilfgaard is a tyrannical empire, who conquers every kingdom that stands in his way? I failed to see how a nation whose sole objective is to conquer everything that's does not belong to them, can be tolerant towards others races"

Geralt still impassive responded to him "I never said that Nilfgaard is tyrannical, it is ruthless, yes, relentless, yes, cunning, yes, and you cannot entirely trust in it, yes, but it is not tyrannical.

Actually Nilfgaard tends to take good care of its subjects, it often rewards those who proved their loyalty to the emperor or if they help the empire even though if they are not citizens of the empire themselves, it does not matter which race you belong to, all that it matters is if you stand with the empire or against it.

Also is really hard for Nilfgaard to be hostile to other races, because most of the citizens of the empire have elven ancestry, most of the ruling nobles, including the emperor, despite being humans have elven blood running through their veins, and is not uncommon to see elves treated with respect in Nilfgaard and its provinces, some of them even have positions of power inside the empire and often citizens of the empire marry with elves, keeping the ties between the two races strong and because Nilfgaard is a proud nation, they take pride of being of elven ancestry, as elves are one of the elder races, practically the first to have walk the land.

So, is not surprising that a great deal of the citizens of the empire are; besides humans, Half-elves and Quadroons."

"Quadroons? Never heard that term used before to refer to someone descendants." Stated Dranosh a little curious.

The witcher continued with his explanation "Yes Quadroons, as the name implies they are ¼ elves, the sons and daughters of humans and half-elves, sometimes even dryads are born as result of interbreeding between humans and elves."

This statement made Lady Tyrande to stop in her tracks bewildered "Dryads? The guardians of nature, born from the union of elf and human, how is that possible?"

The witcher raised an eyebrow at her and with a half-smile he said "You are asking a man who cannot have children himself, how the specifics of hereditary traits in the children of interracial unions work?"

That leaved everybody silent, with several people, especially Tyrande, with a look of puzzlement in their faces; Geralt let them to have some time to allow that to sink and see if they could come up with a counterargument, when none came, he continued.

"I'm sorry, but things like that are beyond me, all that I know is that sometimes, that happens in my world as there have been several confirmations of Dryads born from parents of different races, then again the elves from my world are different from yours, as in their ears are not as long as yours, so that must be something that is exclusive of the races of my world."

The witcher started to walk again, prompting everybody to follow his pace.

"Anyway, where was I? Ah yes, it is because of this reasons and the racial discrimination by the Nordlings that the elves allied themselves with Nilfgaard, when the empire invaded in an attempt to conquer the Northern Kingdoms during the second Nilfgaard-Nordling war.

This lead to the creation of the Scoia'tael, the elven guerrillas known also as the Squirrels, the elves and several members of other non-human races banded together in this groups, they were used primary as a diversion and for support of the main Nilfgaardian army.

When the armies of the Northern kingdoms where busy trying to stop the advance of the imperial army, the Scoia'tael was making sure to weak their resolve, by terrorizing their villages, burning their crops, attacking their supplies lines and caravans, sometimes they even attacked the encampments of the Nordlings armies, or engaged their troops in combat with hit and run tactics.

A very smart and cunning move from Nilfgaard for having help in the creation of the Scoia'tael, the empire attacked the Northern Kingdoms by the front with the bulk of his armies, while the Scoia'tael attacked the Nordlings from the rear and leaved them to be taken by the empire.

This obviously brought even more resentment and discrimination by the Nordlings towards non-humans when the war ended with the defeat of the Nilfgaardian army in the battle of Brenna.

But the empire rewarded the elves for their aid and support during the war, the emperor Emhyr Van Emreis decreed that the land of Dol Blathanna also known as the _Valley of Flowers_, an ancient kingdom that used to belong to the elves for ages until humans came, laid claim to the land and expelled them, was to be return to them and the elven sorceress Enid an Gleanna was crowned by imperial decree as the queen of Dol Blathana.

Thus the Nilfgaard emperor returned the ancient home of the elves to their rightful owners after the war, helping restoring their ancient kingdom that has become the last nation of free elves in the land."

Many of the leaders were surprised and fascinated by the witcher tale, especially Jaina.

"Didn't Nilfgaard lose the war? And yet they rewarded the elves with a nation of their own for their help even though they lost, that… that was pretty generous from their part"

Varian was impressed too "I never heard of a Kingdom rewarding his allies so generously after suffering a blow that I'm certain had leave them with quite the losses"

The witcher chuckled at that "Believe me when I tell you, that even though Nilfgaard was unable to win the war, that doesn't mean that they came out with their hands empty, as I had explained previously, in the beginning of the war Nilfgaard was all but unstoppable, Kingdom after Kingdom fell at his wake which the emperor claimed as his own, and while the remnant kingdoms of the north managed to stop the imperial advance, that didn't mean that the conquered kingdoms were liberated from Nilfgaard occupation.

Even though it was accorded after the war, that Nilfgaard was to return the conquered lands to their rightful kings and withdraw all their forces from the occupied Kingdoms, Nilfgaard has yet failed to release their holds in the Northern Kingdoms and still has a sizeable occupation force assigned in the conquered lands.

Which have brought an uneasy truce, even though the war is over Nilfgaard still retain a hold and influence over several of the Northern kingdoms, some are even divided because of it, like Cintra with little more than half of its territory under imperial occupation."

"So, why not the Nordlings force Nilfgaard out of their occupied lands? They already defeated them in the war, so they could do so again" asked Dranosh as if it was the obvious thing to do.

Geralt denied that statement with a movement of his head and answered "The kingdoms don't have the strength for another war against Nilfgaard, remember that I told all of you that the victory had come with a great price, one that required the need of my services"

"Peace gave way to times of violence and decay….. Yes we remember" asserted Rhonin with a nod.

"Indeed, most of the stability of the northern kingdoms was at border of collapse by the end of the war, while Nilfgaard even though its armies were defeated, it still had a thriving economy and stable infrastructure, most of the expenses of the war were paid with the riches of the kingdoms that were managed to be conquered during the war, and since then the occupied lands have become an stable source of income to the empire.

And besides it's not like the Northern kingdoms are totally friendly among themselves, they usually are subjects of grudges, disputes, opposition, conflicts, even outright hostility among them, the only reason why they joined into a single cause, was because of the great threat that Nilfgaard represented to them, and even when they managed to fight together that almost wasn't enough to stop Nilfgaard, if Nilfgaard had not invaded, the Northern Kingdoms would likely still be divided and fighting among themselves.

It is for this reason that many kingdoms are not willing to go to war against Nilfgaard once more for the liberation of another kingdom that is not their own and that does not affect them for being under Nilfgaardian occupation, they only care for what happens to themselves.

And Nilfgaard even though still poses a vast army that dwarfs that of many of the Northern kingdoms, is not willing to invade once more, because if it do it so, it will unified all the Northern Kingdoms to stand against him, an unappealing course of action, since the Nordlings have already proved that they are able to defeat the empire if they are united, this has brought a stalemate of both sides, because neither has the strength to prevail against the other."

"That sounds pretty much like the current situation we have between the alliance and the horde" commented Aegwynn.

The witcher smirked "Yes it may seem that way, except that Nilfgaard has not yet still abandoned his attempts in conquering the Northern Kingdoms"

"What do you mean by that" asked Varok

"The Nordglings may have proved that they are able to resist against a military intervention, but that just made Nilfgaard to change his tactics, were before it used armies and soldiers as means of conquest, it now uses secrecy, intrigue and assassination as its weapons."

Varian was starting to figure out where the conversation was heading "You mean spies?" he asked.

The Witcher promptly corrected him "More than just spies, Nilfgaard agents do a very wide and complex list of plots against the Northern Kingdoms, they plant seeds of dissidence and strife deep within the kingdoms seats of power, they try to seduce their way into high places of the kingdoms courts, or bought the favor and allegiances of those in positions of power, or simply kill them and put in place individuals who are loyal to them; or they finance cells of rebels and revolutionaries that are displeased with the kingdoms current way of ruling, these cells then attack the Kingdoms in dangerous and often suicidal ways, causing great damage that cost a lot to the kingdoms to restore.

And they still have the Scoia'tael, whom had taken the labor of terrorizing roads and villages, weakening the infrastructure of the kingdoms, although normally they act in independent and isolated units since their fragmentation at the end of the war, but there are still around and sometimes Nilfgaard agents contact them to recruit their help into one of their plots"

"Damn! dose' Nilfgaardians sound as re'lly nasty people, mon', what ezzactly have dey' done for conquering the northern kingdums? Tell us sumthing in zpecific mon'" asked Vol'Jin

The witcher thought for a moment before answering "well, the boldest plot that Nilfgaard has made as of yet in an attempt of conquering the Northern Kingdoms, is when they had send agents to assassinate every single one of the ruling kings, in an attempt to destabilize the north and let the region fall into conflict, they failed but they were really close to succeed and several kings were assassinated because of it, which resulted in some kingdoms falling into strife"

Vol'Jin was appalled "WOW, Dat's sick ya'"

Lor'themar quite stricken by that revelation finally decided to speak after remaining quiet all this time "What kind of power does a nation hold if it can be able to threat the lives of the rulers of several kingdoms at the same time, all by itself? To have the resources to pull it and the nerves to do so, how surreal!"

Sylvanas on the other hand was intrigued "Yes that sounds as a really complicated thing to do; exactly how much power does the Nilfgaard Empire really holds, you never tell us the specifics of it, for example the real numbers that compromise his army or the extension of his domains, you just tell us that it they are vast"

The witcher took a brief glimpse at her before looking back to where they were walking "All of you saw the map in which was depicted the land where I came from, is it not?"

"Yes; and your point is…." Said Sylvanas a little impatient.

"From where it is marked the location of the Yaruga River a little bith north of the Amell Mountains, all of the land south of that point until it reaches the southern end of the map, belongs to Nilfgaard"

Several of the leaders scoffed and were bewildered by that, they remember the geography of the continent depicted in that map, the witcher had explained to them previously the real length and extension in distance measurement depicted in it, not a small place at all, and by remembering the location of the river that means that Nilfgaard possessed more than 2/3 of the lands depicted in the map, that was a hell of a lot of land under Nilfgaard control including the part of the northern kingdoms under the empire's rule.

Varian was a little shocked by that but he kept himself composed and continued walking on "Okay that's….. Damn that's a lot of territory, at least that answer one of our inquiries, ok! What about the size of its armies?"

"I don't know what the real size of the Nilfgaard military is nowadays, but I know that when they invaded the northern kingdoms 10 years ago, Nilfgaard dispatched an army of at least 300,000 troops, with another 20 or 50, 000 that were left behind to guard the lands of the empire."

When the witcher said those numbers, everybody stopped on their tracks, mouths agape.

Thrall was the first to speak "3? 300,000 troops! And they even had reserves? Spirits protect us; those Northern Kingdoms must have really had it bad during the war. Those numbers dwarf the combined number of our own forces, both alliance and horde, not even during the second war did we have those numbers."

"I agree" said Varian "Such overwhelming number of troops, the only ones that I know in this world that could be numbered in such quantity, are the endless folds of the Burning Legion, I really feel bad for the Nordlings, though they managed to prevail against such odds, they must be really skilled warriors"

Geralt quickly admonished Varian "It was not skill what saved them, they were after all filled with desperation, that was what it drove the northern kingdoms to join in a military effort to stand against Nilfgaard, together they managed to defeat the mighty empire, although barely, for it was not only the overwhelming numbers of the Nilfgaardian army that you must be afraid of, but also the skill and experience of its troops.

The Nilfgaardian soldiers are elite trained units that had spent years of warfare conquering lands in the empire's name and have state of the art weapons and equipment, you already have an idea of how much do the empire really holds, now imagine the wealth that such holdings give to the empire, wealth that they had spent well in the training and equipment of its army, truly having Nilfgaard as an enemy is a frightening notion."

The Witcher took a moment to catch his breath and continued "That is another reason why many of the Northern Kingdoms do not want to engage Nilfgaard in another war, while the Northern Kingdoms were left weakened and destabilized by the war, Nilfgaard despite its defeat still remains strong; I have no doubt that by now the empire has completely recovered from his loses in the war"

Jaina was having a hard time comprehending the idea of such a massive and powerful empire "I…. What? ... Then why does the empire spends so many efforts in its expansion? Why wage war or plotting against any free nation? What are its motives for doing that?"

Geralt shrugged at that, truth is he really not cared much about the motives between nations to attack at each other "I don't know, The aims of the emperor are many and mysterious ones, all I can do is speculate, Nilfgaard is a very proud nation, not entirely evil since they know how to treat its citizens well and rule wisely and fairly and they even manage to live harmoniously among the other races, but it is not foreign to ruthlessness and despicable acts to achieve its goals, which are centered mostly in the expansion of the empire.

I think is because the empire thinks that it's the only source for true civilization in a world full of darkness and strife, they certainly believe that their way of life is better than any other of all the civilizations that they had stumble upon, it's possible that they believe that they are doing a good thing by annexing others into the empire, when the empire conquest a nation every single of the citizens of the newly acquired province, become immediately in citizens of the empire, gaining the rights and protection of the law that such position conveys.

That maybe a reason why rarely do acts of rebellion occur in the empire provinces, since Nilfgaard normally treats them better than their previously ruler and are quickly assimilated into the empire customs, but when rebellions do occur they are quickly and decisively suffocated by the empire's military forces.

So it is possible that Nilfgaard has such ambition of constantly expanding it's borders, because it believes that it's bringing peace and prosperity to the world, a forced peace nonetheless, since nothing will stop Nilfgaard to annex every kingdom that it can find into his territories to fulfill its vision of global order, even if the Kingdoms refused that only means that the empire will invade them and annex them against their will.

So all in all, Nilfgaard may have a noble purpose for doing the things that it does, but the ways that it employs to do so, are not entirely noble, it will stop at nothing and it will do everything that it will be necessary to achieve its goals, the ambitions of Nilfgaard is something that I have never seen anything that can be compare against it."

Varian shuddered a little at that thought; such ambitions of power are quite intimidating.

"You know I'm glad it's only you who ended up here in this world, and there is no way for you to go back, I certainly would not like to find myself in the presence of such a mighty and terrible empire"

The witcher looked at Varian with an amused expression "Yes, I'm glad that I'm trapped here in this world away from everything that I'm familiar with and from the people I care, only for the pleasure of being in the company of such a generous and tactful monarch like you"

Varian silently scowled and shake his head, he was about to retort when king Magni beat him to it.

"Ye' know lad, I withdraw what I had said before; ye' world ain't no horrible place, is awfully complex and makes my poor lil' ol' head to suffer of migraines when trying to understand the notions that ye'r world works upon, and I had thought that trying to reach an arrangement with the horde leaders or dealing with the ambassadors of my fellow allies was bad"

Geralt chuckled at that "True enough" was all he said.

Rhonin cleared his throat to draw attention "Well, best we continue with the tour, as informative as this explanation has been, we still have a little more of a trek to go before we can go back to the Violet Citadel and I wish we could do it before dusk"

And with that the group started moving again.

By the time the sun was starting to set in the horizon, casting its orange tonalities into the walls and streets, Rhonin had lead the group of leaders and the witcher back to the Violet Citadel.

Geralt spoke to him and told him, that he was going to retire back to his assigned quarters, for he needed time to ponder in the events that had transpired during the day; Rhonin made no objection to that and told him that he would assign someone to deliver him the dinner to his quarters.

The witcher spent the rest of the evening and night alone in the accommodations that had been assigned to him; it was a very decent room with a bed, a desk for study, with those glowing crystals that were used at lamps attached to the walls, and a mirror hanging in a wall to look at himself, the place was decorated in the same fashion as the rest of the citadel (that means he had to "enjoy" the violet color scheme).

Geralt, ended his meditations a little after midnight, when his predator nature had become exteriorized, he went out of his room into the corridor, and found it empty, so Geralt started to wander through the halls of the citadel to develop a mental map of the place, sometimes he stumbled upon some mage instructor or apprentice, whom reacted surprised and even scared of his appearance, but he paid them little attention, just some courteous exchange of greetings to assured them that he mean no harm and that was all.

He had not the desire to answer any question that they may ask to him, nor did he wanted to get directions from them, because he was not going to no particular place nor he was in a rush to arrive anywhere.

He eventually found the Library, and was satisfied to see that the mages do had an ample selection of tomes, it was clearly that Rhonin could fulfill his part of the bargain to supply him with information about this world, but now was not the time to be analyzing books, he would have that for that later, so the witcher decided to continue with his explorations.

Finally he arrived back to the main hall and into the front doors, the witcher decided that he was curious to see what the night life of the city of Dalaran was, so he decided to take a late night stroll into the city.

….

**NOTE: **well here is the second part of this chapter hope you like it, and I'm sorry it took me more time that I had intended, again I had things at work that needed to do, also I have to go to college on weekends, so that took my time away.

Anyway, I think I should not try to predict how much will it take me to upload the next part, since it seems I suck at that, besides writing is not that easy, I have to filter a lot of ideas, do a lot of changes, even include things that I had not previously intended.

Like, the history of the Ashbringer and Nilfgaard I had no intention to put it in here, yet in the last moment it occurred to me to do it, and I had to write all that and they ended up becoming in the main subjects of this chapter.

Anyhow about Nilfgaard there are many things about that empire that I had to write all by myself, the games does not give a detailed glimpse of the empire and its customs, not even the wiki does it, but it sounded to me like an empire akin to that of the Romans, so I put some things of the Romans empire were known to do and implemented in the customs of Nilfgaard.

Like giving citizenship to the conquered provinces, not sure if the Nilfgaard of the books (why of all the books that exist of the witcher just 2 are translated into English?) and the TV series does that, but it seemed to me like a good way to complement things, so I took some writing liberties, and probably I will continue to use the Roman empire as a base for a more in depth description of Nilfgaard, if I decide to mention more about that nation in future chapters.

I don't know why suddenly I have the idea of a Nilfgaard invasion into Azeroth, well I'm certainly not going to do that right now, but it's something to have for later consideration.

Or what do you think? Please give me your opinions in the reviews, if you think this is a good idea or about anything else you think it could be good to improve this fic.


	10. Chapter 6 part III

CHAPTER 6: NOT A DULL PLACE, AT ALL

Part III

**Author's Note: **you thought i was not going to continue this story, well glad to disapoint, in reallity i have no excuse for having taken this long, i simply cannot believe that 4 months have already past, i don't feel like that time has passed at all, wharever is really hard for me to find the time to write, with my work, family and other stupid stuff, but i have given myself the task of trying to at least find the way to write for 1 hour every day, see how much can i advance this way.

in any case should any of you feel i'm taking to long to update this story feel free to send me messages to either my mail or profile demanding that i continue with this history, yes that's right you should demand from me not ask, that way this story should develop faster, is ok i don't mind, actually i found it quite exilarating, having a pressure on my shoulders forces me to redouble my efforts and forces me to think in ways to overcome any obstacle i may find, it's quite challenging, but i love that challenge.

Last, theres a very annoying problem with my laptop that unables me to use word or any office program, so i have to use the document manager of this site to write my chapters, that said ortographic errors are bound to happen, for this site lacks the option of detecting them, should you find any of them either be a misspeled word or bad sintaxis or wharever, feel free to notify me, so i may correct it promptly.

**Disclaimer: **As usual I don't own anything depicted in this fic (not even the oc's, although i do create them, but since blizzard owns warcraft).

The witcher walked through the streets of Dalaran with no particular direction in mind; he just wanted to acknowledge the vibe of the city during this hours, so instead of walking through the main streets **(that he already had committed to memory thanks to Rhonin's tour)** he used the alleyways and backstreets, that way he could expand his mental map of the city; it did not matter if he found himself sometimes in a dead-end and had to backtrack his steps, this helped him learn which streets could be used as a escape-valve, which could be used for an ambush or which could be used as shortcuts, better learn that now during times of calm instead of times of necessity; and besides while doing this he could avoid to startle any bystander that could be walking at this hours with his looks **(a disadvantage of his predator nature, people tended to freak out when they saw him in that state and Geralt clearly didn't want any unpleasantly to occur while he was skulking around)**

It is not that he expected that something wrong could happen while he was inside the city under the protection of Rhonin and the Kirin Tor but it was better to be prepared just in case; Yes, Geralt knew that he was being paranoid, he could still not get used to the idea that people was not harassing him or avoiding him **(normally in this world people just stared at him as if he was some kind of oddity before continuing on their business, that is if they did not mistook him for something else entirely, in which case they outright ignored him)**, he was still expecting that an angry mob would appear and try to lynch him, Geralt knew that was not going to happen any time soon in this place, but old habits tend to die hard, besides it was still a sound idea to knew every inch and cranny of this city and even more so, because it is thanks to this habits of his, that he had manage to survived all this time.

Eventually the witcher arrived back into the Runeweaver square, and was curious about the alliance and horde districts whose entrances were at each side of the plaza and looking face to face of each other, during Rhonin's tour he had just told him that those were the enclaves of the Silver Covenant and the Sunreavers, but Rhonin did not elaborate beyond that, it looked like he was not particularly fond of speaking of that specific subject; So Geralt approached lady Proudmoore for information regarding those 2 districts.

What he got was a brief explanation of the political climate among the magisters of Dalaran; apparently Vereesa Windrunner **(who is the head of the city's military forces)** had formed a militant group of high elves who call themselves the _Silver Covenant _and oppose the inclusion in the Kirin Tor of his fallen kin, the blood elves who are led by a council member of the Kirin Tor; Aethas Sunreaver and in honor of his leader they call themselves the _Sunreavers_ **(Now that would explain why Rhonin did not want to talk about this subject)**

That would clearly be a matter of distress for Rhonin, not only because he had to deal with a schism and feud among the lines of his magisters ruling body and the city military forces, but also because one of those main figures of opposition was his own wife, Geralt would have never guessed that and even though Rhonin had assured Geralt that Dalaran was a neutral city; that did not stop these 2 groups to take favoritism towards the alliance and horde, making their districts only accessible to the members of whatever faction that the groups hold their allegiances to.

The Silver Covenant only allows members of the alliance in their district and the Sunreavers only allow horde members in their own **(How elitist, isn't it?)** the feud between those groups was a cause of great commotion and headaches for Dalaran's ruling body, these puny grudges will also be a great cause of distress for the witcher in the near future, which is one of the main reasons why he will be constantly going during his stay in the city, to the _Cantrips and Crows _in the City's Underbelly and enter in a frenzy of mead and beer drinking, and spending time with women of….. Dubious reputation from the likes that dwell in places such as the Underbelly **(and he will not necessarily have to spend money for managing to be in the company of those said ladies)**

But that's getting way ahead in this tale, back to the matter at hand, despite knowing about the "_exclusivity"_ to gain entrance in those compounds, the witcher decided to approach them just for the sake to see how the guards will react to his presence.

The witcher got close to the entrance to the Sunreavers enclave known as Sunreaver Sanctuary, the hooded guards stationed there where blood elves, they wore deep red toned robes with light armor on top that just consisted of crimson red breastplates and small flat pauldrons of the same color.

The hooded elven guards took a glimpse at the witcher approaching, they simply nodded their heads at him at greeted him.

"Welcome Forsaken" and did nothing to impede his way. **(So much for tight security, it would seem)**

So, Geralt merely returned the nod and kept walking, gaining entrance into the sunreaver sanctuary. Apparently the elves had mistook him for an undead forsaken **(must have been because of his skin tonality, that's why he was not surprised when that gnome mistook him for a rogue, 2 days later in the Underbelly, he had already been through situations when people took a wrong idea about what he was)**

Well, it would appear that the "sanctuary" was not such a bad place at all, it even had its own tavern; "_The Filthy Animal"_ was its name, such a refined place it sounded! Nevertheless, Geralt could not deny that it had his own form of ring to it.

With nothing better to do, the witcher decided that it was a good idea to get a drink **(Ahhh! dear Geralt and his vices, never fails to miss an oppportunity to indulge them)**; so Geralt entered in the establishment. Despite the late hour there were still a remarkable number of "decent" **(eufemism of the year) **patrons, "gracing" this place with their presence **(What an Honor!)**, some of them had clearly drank until knocking themselves out.

Others…. Well; it would appear that there were on their way to drown themselves in their own vomit while lying face down on the floor; **(How strange isn't it?) **the witcher rolled his eyes, yes this place was as refined as he had imagine it would be; **(Whoope do, what a surprise?) **and unless his eyes were playing tricks on him **(which he doubted 'cus he had an excellent vision thanks to his mutations)** he recognized one of the people that were about to pass out due to alcohol overdose **(or in this case already done it)**.

It was that troll that he had met back at the siege camps, what was his name?... Zungo! Yes that it was, Zungo was sitting close **(sitting? more likely hanging from the chair, and about to fall down to the floor)** to one of the tables, and he was not alone, because he was accompanied with a female of his species, a she-troll **(mmmph, it would seem that zungo was simply having a good time)**.

Although one could not said that about Zungo's lady friend, she looked liked she was irritated **(what an understatement?)** by the atmosphere around her and was trying her best to endure it in the most dignified way possible; barely being able to do it, it would seemed** (another understatement)**

She had small blue hair arranged in braids, and small and delicate tusks at the sides of her mouth, unlike zungo's that were long and thick, she wore a garb and tunic made of the pelt and skin of several animals, very much like the rest of her clothes, that were made from little more than rags, she had short bushy blue hair covering her head and piercings and tribal tattoos on several parts of her face, she was smoking using a long pipe that was somewhat elegant and crude at the same time; she exuded an aura of mystery around her, Geralt suspected that this woman was no wench; his suspicions proved correct when he saw that she was carrying a long wooden staff with its tip adorned with strange charms made of bones same as the beads around her neck or the brecelets, rings and other charms that she was wearing. This made the witcher believe that the she-troll had knowledge in the magical arts.

His thoughts were interrupted however, because the she-troll took notice of how the witcher was looking at her.**(Geralt what happened to your discretion?)**

The she-troll pointed at him "Hey ya,' what is that ya'r lookin'a!"

The witcher raised his hands in an apologetic manner and replied.

"sorry if I insulted you, milady; it just that I found strange to find someone like you, in a place like this" **(what's this? a cheap pick up line? damn, this guy is fast, but c'mon he can do better than this)**

The she-troll too interpreted it like that and felt her patience grow thin, she puffed some smoke "Anotha' lusty drunk, ya' gonna need ta' learn sum respect mon'"

the witcher humphed at that, he half smiled and made a "hold on" sign with one of his hands.

"hold it, you are giving yourself to much credit, while it is true you are quite a good looking troll woman by even human standards **(the she-troll bristled at this, Geralt did not paid attention to it) **that was not the reason i was looking at you, it is because you do not look as part of the atmosphere around here"

this picked up the she-troll interest and started to look at geralt with a mesurement eye.

"wut da' ya' mean by dat'?" she asked.

the witcher crossed his arms "you don't look like a person who would dwell in a place like this, you are different from the rest of the patrons of this place, you carry yourself proudly and dignified unlike the rest of the people around here, you have the look in your eyes of someone who possess a great amount of knowledge and information about the secret workings of the world, and you look like you don't have patience for petty and superficial things like wasting oneself body and time by the means of alcohol ingestion".

The she-troll found the witcher answer amusing, she took a long drag from her pipe while studying Geralt at the same time; she chuckled.

"and ya' learned all da't by lookin'a me for a few seconds, am impressed" She took a long drag from her pipe before continuing.

"But it seems am not da' only one who dosn't belong in dis place, luk at ya' for ezample".

Geralt raised an eyebrow "uhh, what about me?" he asked.

the she-troll puffed more smoke and smiled "well let's see, at first glance ya' luk' no mor' different from da' rest of da' lou lifes around here, but in reality ya' simply are blending ya'self with da' enviroment to avoid atracting atenshion', ya' have da' eyes and looks of a predator on ya', muving unseen and secrely in order to surprise da' unzuspecting quarry, which makes me raise da' question, wut is such a devious creature like ya' looking fo' in dis' lowly place?"

Geralt chuckled at that, he was right in his suspicios about this woman "Actually i was merely trying to escape boredrom, when i saw dearly friend Zungo over here sitting close to you".

The she-troll scowled at the mention of the troll's name "Ya' nou' Zungo" she asked and then added "from where?".

the witcher was a little surprised by the she-troll reaction towards zungo's name but as usual he didn't show it

"Well yes, i met him a couple of days ago back at the siege camps at the wrathgate base, he provided me with some much useful and needed information, he proved a very nice fellow"

The she-troll bristled at that " nice fella', bah! he is a fool who oftens gets himself in mor' trobold' dan' he is worth"

"it seems you don't have a high opinion about him, why is that? he didn't seem as a bad person to me'".

"oh he is nut a bad fella' a'ight but he tends to screw tings up on a daily basis, stupid idiot haz get mah' in some serious crap mor' times dan' i can remember, all thanks to his addictions and bad habits, teik' wut his's doing 'ight now as an ezzample, moron likes to drink, 'cept he doesnt have much resisntans' to alcohol, wut' kind of trobold' would he get if im not here to keep him on a leash?.

a brief glimpse into Zungo's blissfully ignorant state thanks to his current trip into la-la-land was more than enough to prove the validity of that statement, but the Geralt was sometimes known for adding stress to a person particular grivance instead of giving help and support, so he decided to tease the she-troll.

"well it seems you are not complaning enough, since you are quite enjoying his company in his current state by sitting right next to him" Geralt replied.

that kind of pissed of the she-troll, but before she could make a witty coment comeback, the troll in question started to stirr in his drunkeness slumber and started to mumble something about inhaling 60 mountains of red spice** (is that even physically possible?)**, that was more than Geralt wanted to know.

the she-troll sighed "dere' he goes again mei'king show of his supreme intellect, i think he has had enuff' fun alredy', gemme' a moment to weik' him up"

The she-troll immediatly put a hand inside her garb and after a few moments of rummaging, she pulled out a small leather flask, she uncorched it and immediatly a foul odor reached the witcher nosetrils, he didn't had to guess what she was going to do with, poor zungo he felt some pity for him, but not enough as to care of stoping the she-troll.

she took one moment to adress the witcher "dis' is mah' special bru', it will pull him out of his stupor in no taim'"

She grabbed zungo's head with one hand and in a single movement she pulled his head back, opened his mouth and tossed the contents of the flask inside of Zungo's, mouth forcing him to drank the contents, it is obvious what Zungo's reaction was.

"AAACKKK, AAAACK, BLEEEEGH, Agh DAMNIT IN DA' NAME OF ALL DA' SPIRITS, DRUJILLA, DA' FEL WITH YA' WOMAN, ya'know how i hate da' taste of ya' potions"

"dere' his's fine now" replied the she-troll whose name, the witcher supposed was Drujilla after being screamed by zungo in his fit, the troll in question proceed to make his discomfort aparent by trashing about.

"So much for introductions" he said ignoring zungo's wailing "since now i know your name is only appropiate that i tell you mine, i'm Geralt of Rivia"

"Drujilla, witch doctor of da' darkspear tribe, a pleasure to meet ya' Geralt of Rivia; Zungo told me about ya', didn't belive him of course, cuz' i thought 'twas anoder' of his outrageous stories"

hearing Geralt's name was enough to stop zungo's misfits cold "Geralt? da' witcher?" he grinned "Oi! how are ya' mon' its good to see ya' again, wut brings ya' here?" Zungo stopped cold in his thinking when his brain stated to asses that question "Vait' a minute how da' hell did ya' enter here, dis' is a place for only horde members?" he asked.

The witcher shrugged "the guards at the entrance thought i was an undead forsaken and allowed me enter here without question" he replied.

Drujilla chuckled, Zungo reacted with nervousness immediatly and grabed the witcher from the collar and pulled towards him; he spoked to him in a hushed tone.

"SHHHH, don't go 'round people of dis place' saying dose' dings' mon', dis' is horde territory and dey' don't like people entering uninvited in dey' turf"

"Is not my fault that the security of this place is so laxing" replied Geralt.

Zungo shook his head in irritation, he examined his surroundings to make sure no one was listening to their conversation, something wich he feared after his display of drunk behavior.

He didn't need to worry it would seem that his rantics were something usual in this place for no one was paying him or the witcher any attention, he breathed easily after that and adressed Geralt once more.

"Be as it may mon', is not safe fo' ya' to be wandering 'bout in dis' place, people here are suspicious of strangers, it raises to many flags, if ya' knou wut' i mean".

The witcher took a few seconds to weight his options, then he sighed "I didn't realize that it would be so hard for a man to get a drink in this place"

Zungo chuckled "Feh!, so dat' was it Oi! yes i knou da' feeling; cum' with me and Drujilla and i will show ya' to a place were ya' can drink until knocking ya'self out... well oder' dan' dis' place of course".

Drujilla did not like that nad would have none of it "Nou vait' a minute, why do ya' always have to include me in ya' stupid schemes, i alredy knou how does tend to turn out, and ya' knou how dat' pisses me off!".

Zungo had to plead with her "C'mon Druji, please"

"Don't ya' c'mon Druji me, ya' are quite aware of how i found distateful to be surranded' by alcoholized idiots, it's most unbecoming for someone of mah status"

"please druji, i promise noding' bad would happen, i'm just trying to prevent mah' frend Geralt ova' here from getting into troble'"

"like da' ones ya' usually get into'? and den' i have to go and save ya' arse from da' fire"

"Oh c'mon don' be da' like, ya' knou dat' i'm well versed 'bout dis' sort of dings', oder'wise i wouldn't be able to get ya' dat' special kind of tobacco ya' like too smoke to much"

Drujilla flinched "fahn', sumetimes stills boogles mah' mind how is dat' a shadowhunter knous too much 'bout smuggling?" she asked.

Zungo gave her a roguish smirk "I knou people and knou how to fand' and get dings done', remember i told ya' i was not always a shadowhunter, in mah youth i used to hang around of one of dem' goblins cartels, it vill ok Druji" he said.

Drujilla was still not much convinced "Aight', just so ya' knou mah patience fo' tonight has alredy ben spent, so if ya' start again with ya' little performans' of Mr. Alcohol Man, i vill give ya' a taste of mah' juju"

It was now Zungo's turn to flinch "ough i knou dis' will end bad for me alredy, (sigh) oh but how do' say no to a friend"

"Not to mention booze, i would add" mentioned Geralt.

"dat' too, c'mon let me show ya' to a nice place i knou, is right doun' here in da' Underbelly"

"Underbelly?" asked Geralt

"'Aight, i would assume since ya' niu' here. ya' wouldn't knou 'bout da place, so it vill be the polite ding' to do to show ya', ya' gonna like it, it is the most lively place in da' entire city"

"And filthy, if ya' fancie dat' too" added Drujilla.

And so thanks to Zungo's "appreciation" of the good drink, is that Geralt becamed acquainted with the Underbelly, this was just the beginning of a long night of alcohol ingestion, true to her word Drujilla made use of her magics on Zungo when he started to loose himself into the alcohol, causing him to spasm in the floor like a boneless fish, much to Geralt amusement.

In any case from now on, every night would Geralt came down here to lighten his mood, something that he indeed would require because having to deal with the mages and his politics, would be something that would proved more taxing than he had originally expected.

Yes, they were the reason why he would be in foul mood as of lately, those damn mages, Geralt felt he had been scamed in his deal with Jaina, she didn't mention anything of having to deal with the constants quarrels beetwen the silver covenant and the sunreavers, he didn't suspected of how much they were integrated in the Kirin Tor, what was he thinking when he had said yes, oh that's right he wasn't thinking, he was just simply trying to give lady Jaina a good impression, how often does a pretty face and pretty eyes be the cause of many grivances to a man; women! not the first time that he had gotten himself in trouble because of them, if his hazy memory was serving him right.

But let us backtrack a little and see how this came to be.

After spending the rest of the night in the _Cantrips and Crows_ drinking and fooling around with the 2 trolls, the witcher returned to the violet citadel at early morning just a little past de firsts lights of dawn. Only to find Rhonin already up waiting for him, and he didn't look pleased in the slightest, it seems that the guards of the night shift had informed him of his little escapade into the city, leaving Rhonin with worry over his guest.

Rhonin tried to speak with all the calmness he could muster "you should have not got out into the city at night without escort, at least you should have told me or leaved a message as to where were you going"

"But I could not have do it even If I wanted to" replied the witcher "for I had no place in my mind where I wished to go, I just simply wanted to wander a little"

Rhonin was in disbelief by that answer "Wander a little? Didn't you had enough sightseeing with the trip in which we spend the entire yesterday afternoon"

"Yes, but those were just the places for tourists to visit, what I really wanted to see where the inner workings of the city, what the word in the streets are, it's secrets held in every inch and cranny, the places where the real fun is at, if you catch my meaning"

Rhonin facepalmed, that is the kind of explanation he was wishing that Geralt would not said "that's exactly what I was fearing you would tell me, you cannot simply go out snooping around out of simply curiosity, it will get you into trouble, especially with the strong presence we have in the city of alliance and horde members, they would not take kindly that someone unknown to them pries uninvited into their business"

"So I been told" replied the witcher.

That startled Rhonin "What? Who told you so?... What did you do? You didn't get into trouble, did you?".

"Relax everything is fine, I simple stumble with one of the troops I had became acquainted back at the wrathgate and he simply gave me a few advices and pointed me in the right direction"

"For the smell and the scent of alcohol, I daresay that such direction was the Underbelly"

Geralt grinned at that "well I wasn't going to pass the opportunity to taste a little of the local brewery and hospitality"

Rhonin shook his head in annoy "yeah right, in any case the other guests; and by that I mean the main leaders of the alliance and the horde factions. Are starting to wake up, so I have already gave orders for breakfast to be prepared and served…. I don't suppose you would want it to be served to you?"

"No thanks I already ate" replied geralt and quickly added "but I could offer to accompany them and you, it would be an opportunity to continue with our business"

"I suppose that has sense, but you will not go into the presence of the leaders reeking to alcohol, what kind of image would that be, nevermind of the fact that is so early to be drinking"

"Oh? But I didn't start early; in fact it was really late when I started".

"Somehow that doesn't reassure me in the slightest".

"well for you information I happen to possess a very high resistance to alcohol, another one of my perks, that's why I can be here speaking to you at full control of my capacities, all I would have to do is change my clothes and get rid of the scent and none would be the wiser."

Rhonin had to give him point "Fine! But do hurry, I don't want any of the others to suddenly walk around here and see you like this".

The witcher gave him a nod "As you wish, I think I would go and take a bath then"

"Ok, just give your clothes to one of the servants if you wish for them to be cleaned"

...

After a quick bath and a change of spare clothes that belonged to him not to the Kirin tor, which consisted in a simple set of white linen shirt and brown pants that shown his lean, well sculpt body and muscles although he was still using his boots and gloves but he had to leave his weapons behind in his quarters **(coming fully armed to the summit's breakfast was indeed a god way to be in Rhonin's good graces)** the witcher entered in the main dining room of the violet citadel, were breakfast was already served and the leaders were taking seats at opposite sides if the table.

At Rhonin's request they grudgingly accepted to take their meals in the presence of the other faction leaders, although it did not come without effort for several would have preferred to take them alone in their quarters, but some of the most sensitive leaders like Thrall or Jaina remind them how rude would that be towards Rhonin and his magister council, not to mention the backlash that such actions may cause to their diplomatical talks.

Rhonin gave a brief glance at Geralt when he entered in the room, and nodded in approval at his change of image.

Rhonin was sitting at the head of the table, of course his wife Veressa was at his right, at his left was archmage Modera, with the rest of the council taking places in the subsequent seats, then it was the turn of Jaina and Aegwynn who ended up facing each other at opposites sides of the table, Jaina at Rhonin's right, Aegwynn to the left, then were the leaders of the alliance and horde next, alliance at Rhonin's right, Horde at his left; In this order.

First were the main leaders, Thrall and Varian, and then they came their closest friends or advisors, Cairne, Vol'Jin, Varok and his son Dranosh, on the other side were King Magni, Mekkatorque and Tirion. Then it continued with the ones left, Sylvanas and Lor'themar, and Tyrande and Prophet Velen.

Seeing there were no other seats options the witcher had to take the one at the bottom **(Go figure)** the one that puts him facing Rhonin directy and having Velen and Lor'themar at his sides.

Jaina took notice of Geralt's choice of clothes and how they well to his body his figure and muscles, she forced herself to look away when she realized she was ogling him, this brought her a faint flush to her cheeks, her reaction did not go unnoticed to both Geralt and Aegwyn and brought them a smile to the two for the same reason.

"Good Morning" he greeted them.

Prophet Velen was the first to return the greeting "Mornings young one, you look very well rested this morning young master Geralt, sleep….. Oh sorry I forgot you' don't sleep, ...mmm… If that's the case then…. I assume your meditations were quite prolific"

"indeed, although I would said that I'm no young man at all, being that if I had managed to sire a descendancy, I would had grandchildren by now. I do have managed to reflect in the events of yesterday and now that I have a fully comprehension over them, I am ready for whatever new knowledge that this day may bring.

"That's really a good thing, Ahem… without the intent to offend you master Geralt, but I as the spiritual guide of my people since primordial times. I have managed to lead them through great perils over the ages, protecting and guiding them over millennia, so in my eyes you are a very young being compared with all I have seen in my time" spoke the ancient priest.

"Fair enough, I know that it is always a good thing to pay heed to the words of those who have come before you" replied the witcher.

Velen and others approved of the witcher answer "that is a very commendable attitude young master" Velen praised him "often does the youngsters tend to ignore the advices of their elders"

"Ha, wouldn't I know?" Commented Varok.

"At any rate, it seems your meditations have done you good, you look quite dashing this morning" said Velen.

"Thank you, since there is no immediate danger inside this city, I decided that it will be counterproductive to go around in full gear, after all it is just a breakfast"

"Indeed, well I assume that even a formidable fighter like yourself would require the need for nourishment from time to time, so… shall we?"

The witcher refused in a polite manner "No need but thank you very much anyway your holiness, since my meditations didn't took me the whole night, I been able to be walking around since very early, enough to take care of my needs of food and hygiene already; I just thought it would be a good idea to offer my company to all of you while tending your own needs" Rhonin rolled his eyes at the witcher explanation, something that was lost to all except his wife who had to silently scold him and to Geralt who simply ignored him.

"Well that's very thoughtful of you master Geralt, and it's good for you to be up since early, it allows you to make more of the day" Replied the Prophet.

"My thoughts exactly, besides this could be a nice opportunity to discuss some matters that I have concerning your world"

"Ah yes! I supposed it would, we could eat and help you in your inquiries at the same time, tell us young man what is it bothering you?" spoke Aegwynn.

Geralt laid himself comfortable in his seat while clutching his hands together and looked at Aegwynn "well first of all, I believe someone" he said while taking a brief glimpse at Rhonin "owes me an explanation about what is the issue with the dragons that dwell in this region"

A sigh escaped from Rhonin "That is a history that brings me great sorrow"

And so Rhonin told him, how he and his mages have more than their hands full with trouble, being at the front of two different wars that threatened the stability of the world; one against the vast undead army of the Lich King and his Scourge that threatened to consume all life in Azeroth, the other against the blue dragonflight **(a special breed of dragons that can control magic, now that just nasty, the witcher really hated facing magic users)** lead by the dragon aspect Malygos (**the Patriarch of this dragon breed it would seem, really old, powerful too, no doubt)**, Malygos had grow mad and had turned all of his kin against the rest of the species of this world, believing that the recent catastrophes were the result of the reckless use of magic by the mortal races, the dragon threatened to sip all the magical energy of the world; causing rifts in the fabric of magic itself; a serious threat that one was, indeed **(so this was the other reason why the Kirin Tor had moved the city, no wonder Rhonin didn't wanted to speak of it in the streets, don't want to unsettle the population with reminders of a lurking threat) **

Worst of all many of the Kirin Tor have betrayed their fellow mages and joined Malygos in his mad schemes. One would thought that in such a dire situation the mages would do all in their power to confront the Dragon aspect in a unified front, but instead as the petty grudges between the silver covenant and the sunreavers can tell, the mages can give themselves the luxury of stand divided in their times of great need.

Well, maybe it is because they have the back up of the 4 remaining dragon breeds **(Geralt supposed that even he could give himself the right of a little slack if he had the help of an entire dragon brood)**

Alexstrasza **(the main authority among the dragons of this world it appears)** was horrified by the actions of his former kin, and so she commanded her and the rest of the dragonflights to bring an end to Malygos plan, they allied themselves the Kirin Tor in what it is known as the Wyrmrest accord.

Geralt took noticed of all of it, taking any detail of relevance; by the time that many of the other leaders were far through with their dishes, Rhonin had finished with his tale, so the witcher raised a question.

"Have your forces had any confrontations with the blue dragons already"

"Some, we have had a few run-ins with them from time to time, nothing major just a few skirmishes and ambushes" answered Rhonin.

"Does anyone of the troops that you have stationed here in the city, have been present during one of those skirmishes?" the witcher further inquired.

Rhonin wasn't expecting that, but nevertheless he answered him "Not many just a few of them, it is normally those that we sent on patrol who are attacked, but they do not always have to fight against the blues, with the lich king and all, you know".

"Do you know any of them?"

"_Now where does he want to get with this?"_ thought Rhonin

"I do" answered Veressa for him.

"Could you please summon them here?" requested Geralt.

Some of the other leaders founded that odd "What exactly do you want to get from this, young one?" Asked Aegwyn.

"I wish to ask them about how they dealt with their attackers, I require an insight about the most proper way to face those creatures and since there are already people here that have faced them, what better way to learn that than from those who had succeeded in defeating them and survive".

"…mmm… that has a lot of sense, actually" mentioned Thrall.

And so it was not long before half a dozen soldiers of Dalaran were called to the archmagister presence, wearing the traditional violet uniform of the city military forces.

Most of them were slightly confused as to why they were summoned by the archmagister himself since their positions were not so important, being merely as they were just front line foot soldiers and scouts.

Rhonin reassured them that nothing serious was happening that required their services and proceed to explain them the witcher particular petition.

So the witcher heard the retelling of their past encounters with the blue dragonflight, and how they managed to survive the ordeal, the witcher was very thorough and questioned them about everything that could prove useful to him, he asked about the different types of creatures that composed the dragonflight, from the dragonkin to the dragonspawn up to the mighty blue dragons, and also about their specific characteristics, from their looks to their behaviors and tactics, continuing to the best strategies to employ when dealing with them and he also asked about their physiology from a strictly martial point of view. How did their circulatory system differed from the human, where was the best place to inflict wounds that would cut deep and bleed profusely, the exact place where you had to hit to snap or break a limb, anything that could be considered a strength or a weakness; especially the weakness.

Obviously not all the leaders were pleased about discussing how to effectively inflict different kinds of lacerations and bone fractures just right after they had ate their breakfasts. So it was not surprise that some of them would made their discomfort know.

"What a lovely conversation we are having" spoke Varian without lack of sarcasm "this talk about injuries, maiming, hurting, killing and what knot, makes some really great wonders for settling one's stomach right after eating, is it your objective to make us spill the contents of our stomachs or what?"

Sylvanas was not of that line of thinking for she founded the conversation quite entertaning.

"Actually I found this conversation to be quite pleasing, it soothes me somehow, I think I should demand my servants from now on to speak about torture and harm infliction every time that I finish I meal, do you find that odd?" she asked clearly with the intention of picking on Varian

"Your bizarre preferences are more that I wished to know, unholy creature; but that's beside the point" Varian addressed Geralt once more "seriously you couldn't pick another moment to ask your gruesome questions?"

"they are fair questions, I was assured that all my doubts would be answered after all; it matters not when to, better to deal with that now so I can continue with more important work later on, have to squish all i can from the day, after all" replied Geralt.

"I fail to see how this could be relevant somehow to the reason as to why we are here?" Varian asked.

"For you? Maybe nothing, but to us who have to do the ugly work, it is the difference between life and death, besides it is relevant, since this is the kind of information that I was promised from the lot of you when I agreed to that dealing with lady Jaina"

one of the troops, a female high elf, mentioned "i have to say this is proving to be quite the enlightning experience, i dindn't knew some of this things, now i can make sure to face the blues more effectively next time i go on patrol" she bumped her fists in excitement"i can wait to put his new notions into action, those blues are gona get some nasty surprises" there were grunts and nods of aprovall from the rest of her fellows comrades in arms "why didn't we did this before, we should exchange tactics more often".

"You see" said Geralt "not only do i managed to get the knowledge that i require, but also dalaran's troops are able to improve their effectivewness in combat, making sure that they are better prepared to face the enemy and ensuring the protection and defense of the city, it is a win-win situation, not only i benfit from this, but also Rhonin and his mages, the city military forces and the citizens of the city itself"

Varian was left a little stunned by the witcher explanation, the rest of the people gathered in the dining hall were pondering with inquisitives looks geralt's statement.

finally Varok saurfang was first to speak "it is really hard to find an argument against your particular way of thinking, mister Geralt".

Geralt smirked and chuckled at him.

Varin finally overcoming his inability to speak said "regardless of how beneficial this may proved to be, i still found it distresfull to having this kind of conversation right during breakfast, don't get me wrong even i had to implement my own kind of gruesome brutality from time to time in order to ensure my own safety and that of my kingdom, but i consider it to be quite impolite speaking of such things in the prescence of civilized and sensible people"

"Sensible people? who among us is sensible?" asked Dranosh Saurfang.

"Certanly not you" countered king Magni "why i'm not surprised"

Varok decided to intervene before his son felt himself insulted "Now my son don't speak without thinking, even tough many of us here are excepcionally fierce warriors, that doesn't mean we are not sensible in a way or another. You know i'm sensible about my past mistakes and how i want to atone for them, warchief Thrall is a great leader and warrior too, but he also is a sensible and fair person, Cairne is sensible too and nobody doubts his strenght"

"And many of the alliance leaders are sensible too, Prophet Velen due to his role of guide and fatherly figure is really sensible and dutiful in the leadership of his people, Priestess Tyrande is a great sensible and lovely woman, but i certanly do not wish to make her mad unless i want my butt turned into a pincushion by her arrows"

"dont you ever doubt it" said Tyrande with a playful smile.

"and even the king Varian is sensible in a way, otherwise he would not be loved by his people; so my son we could countinue to list traits that makes every single one of us sensible in one way or another"

"Even Sylvanas?" asked Dranosh.

Sylvanas narrowed her eyes really slowly and stared at dranosh bemusely, something that was not lost to anyone in the room.

"well my son, i think that is something that only her sister can vouch for, but since it is a matter that concers strictly to her family, i think it is nothing of our bussines to dwell in such affair, so let just leave it at that" **(nice saving by Varok) **

The witcher chuckled "nice one, old man"

"well i think this settles it then, now! what should be the next matter of the day to attent to?" asked Thrall.

"well!" said Rhonin "i would like for the Kirin Tor to start with the study of master Geralt particulary trend of alchemy, i would like a little demostration for the apprentices and the senior instructors so they may start familiarizing with this new knowledge"

Geralt tilted his head at a side "Very well, i think it should be easy enough for me to teach the basics to your students" he humped and smirked a bit "it will be a way to repaid the debt that we witchers have towards mages".

"What are you talking about mister Geralt? what debt?" asked Jaina.

"oh! is nothing, is just that, back in my world it was the mages who taught the first witchers how to cast our signs and the basics of alcnemy and other miscellaneous magical knowledge, now i a witcher find myself with the task of teaching a bunch of mages several aspects of magical lore; ah! the irony of life, quite excquisite indeed"

"huh! so it seems" said Aegwynn "well we shall better get on then, i am curious myself to see the limits of your alchemy master Geralt"

and so Rhonin bade goodbye to the troops he had called and ordered them to return to their posts, then he sent word to prepare one of the alchemy laboratories for his use and finally word to the senior staff, initiates and aprentices telling them to assist for a lesson, orders of the archmage not so uncommon since this is an institution for magical teachings.

the witcher thought that instructing this mages into his way of alchemy was going to be easy, how wrong did he was.

To Be Continued.

Note: well there you have it the long waited update and i'm not entirely satisfied with the result, and also i feel that the story is developing so slow well i will try to close this arc in dalaran in the next chapter and add a little action in it, for i'm about to start to enter in the quests of warcraft, if you have play the game you would recognize the quest that i'm going to put geralt through.

also that i finished this chapter just in time because tomorrow dragon age 2 is about to be released, don't worry i will not let it to distract me from writing this fic... much.

well see ya next chapter, i'm pretty confident it will not take that long. i will try to have it ended in less than a month.


	11. Chapter 6 part IV

**Disclaimer:** I own neither World of Warcraft or the witcher. they belong to their respective authors.

**Author's note:** I really don't have much to say, i suffered hindraces while writting this chapter. lost almost half of it due to a blackout. Had to rewrite and i'm still rewritting all that i had lost; in fact i'm only updating because it has already passed to long a time since last update. This chapter i consider it incomplete, but is long enough for you people to enjoy. Just for the record the original was way longer before i lost it.

CHAPTER 6

PART IV

The Witcher; Geralt of Rivia is known for many things, be it his skill in battle, his fearless determination, his ruthless efficiency or his impudent ways at chasing skirts. but trying to teach something to a bunch of conflictive mages at odds with each other, is certainly not one of them.

Geralt, true to his word had attempted to teach the mages of the Kirin Tor, the basis of his particular and powerful trend of alchemy, just a little demonstration for starters; it ended proving something really taxing to his nerves.

Don't get me wrong, is not that the mages are incapable of understanding or because Geralt is being a bad teacher, no! It is because they cannot seem to avoid their rational part of their minds from being clouded by their grudges, much to Geralt's chagrin; especially when he is trying to making them pay attention to a particularly important piece of information (important in the way that because the witcher alchemy can be extremely dangerous, missing vital information can result in injury or death)

Curious! Geralt should had seen coming that they would had acted in that way, but he didn't, that was because everything had started quite civilized in the beginning, he made the error of having expected that it would had remain as such.

Let's see… Rhonin had prepared one of the laboratories in the violet citadel for his use, so he could give a little display of the characteristics of his world alchemy. Geralt gave him a little list of what was need it, which it was not much really. the instruments in a simple alchemy kit can do the trick, provided that you have a formulae and the ingredients and knowledge of how to properly mix them; Geralt had also ordered that a sizeable amount of antivemons and other detoxyfiyng beverages had to be prepared for the ocassion, this raised many inquiries from the mages but geralt told them that it was needed and that he would explain everthing during his demostration. so the mages complied.

Anyway, Geralt was getting himself ready by checking the state of his instruments and ingredients. the laboratory that was secured for his use was designed to serve as both working station and classroom, not really surprising since the Kirin Tor is an institution that helps in the instruction and teaching of young mages. it connected to a small chamber that served as an interior garden, the space had several dummies stacked in several rows, one could suposse that this room was used to teach and train the apprentices in the more offensive ways of the magical arts.

the witcher was having quite the crowd looking and paying attention to him. Most of them were apprentices of the Kirin Tor. An obvious enough realization since they were wearing the official robes that identified them as such. But they were not alone, of course since logic dictates that were they are students, teachers must be present to instruct them and keep them in line.

And that's exactly what they were here to do (at least in theory) several of the main instructors of the Kirin Tor and part of the senior staff which included individuals like Arcanist Ginsberg, Conjurer Weinhaus (a female gnome), arch mage John Nicholas (an elf) and others; were present for this little "experiment".

The witcher started to experience a sense of foreboding when he saw that many of the "students" were keeping themselves apart in 2 groups, far away from each other as possible. And on top of their Kirin Tor uniforms they were wearing the colors that identified them as members of the Silver Covenant and the Sunriders. He well suspected that having many members of 2 different groups that hated the guts out of each other in such a confine space was asking for trouble. But, since he had agreed to teach his magical lore to the "_whole_" of the Kirin Tor; Geralt did not have much of an excuse to back from his word (this is the moment were regret was starting to flare inside of him) not that he would had backed from his word even if he had a viable excuse. In professions like his, one's word is a sacred bond and the witcher was nothing but true to his own word (although he does like to take a very wide range of liberties when he is to interpret the way in which a particular task must be accomplished)

In any case; he decided to ignore his silly worries. "Clearly" he thought "nothing particularly unpleasant should occur. Having the presence of Dalaran ruling body and so many instructors to keep an eye here of things" naive way of thinking and most unbecoming for a witcher of his expertise.

But it cannot be faulted nevertheless; because the council of six was indeed here with him, making full function of their official capabilities too. Most of them were keeping themselves apart acting as overseers of this little "lesson" as they decided to call it. they were keeping an eye not only to the witcher little "stand", but also making sure the apprentices behaved themselves and making sure the leaders of the alliance an horde factions were not about to get conflictive.

Yes, the factions' leaders were here too, obviously they were eager to see a demonstration of the witcher alchemy. After what they had witnessed and what Geralt had told them about his world alchemy. They were curious about the extent of what this particular trend of alchemy could accomplish; in particular some of them like the banshee queen Sylvanas who was keeping a watchful eye over Geralt's work. Taking carefully designed mental notes for future recollection.

Well, at least the mages were kind enough to lend him a hand; Geralt thought. Rhonin was standing right next to him, ready to assist him and to be a first hand witness of his alchemy expertise (obviously a perk that comes for being the boss around here), to Geralt's left making last minute checks. Was the senior alchemist Burroughs (an understandable decision that Rhonin would require the presence of one of his main alchemist for this endeavor) To Geralt's delight, lady Proudmoore was also close to him in order to get a better chance to analyze his work (obviously he was not about to complain of having the opportunity to be around of such a gorgeous woman), Jaina's advisor lady Aegwynn was present too. close to her ward in order to render assistance. There is also the reason of her being the most senior and experienced mage present right now in the whole of the Kirin Tor, so not much surprise there.

the witcher cleared and decided that it was better to deal with this torment already "I assume most of you have a basic Knowledge of what alchemy is all about, isn't it?" he asked.

he recieved small nods and confirmations from most of his listeners. "Fair enough, so i will skip all that and go directly to the point of the matter"

"these decoctions; unlike the ones that you are usually used to. Forces changes in the drinker's physiology. these changes depend on the properties of the potion itself, but such changes come with a price attached"

"A price? what sort of price?" asked Jaina with interest.

"because of the changes and mutations my kind are submitted to. our bodies are better prepared to handle strain and harm. this allow us to consume ingredients that would prove lethal to a normal person. very handy since many of this potions give the imbeder great abilities at the exchange of enduring diferent levels of toxicity, sometimes very high ones".

"you mean that this potions can kill a regular person?" asked Rhonin highly startled by the last revelation.

"yes" answered Geralt nonchalantly.

"then how can we benefit from this knowledge if it could kill us before we could make use of its enhancements?" asked Alchemist Burroughs.

The witcher bristled in annoyance at that question "You are mages" he said.

"Yes, So?"

Geralt was starting to feel sligthly annoyed "we witchers were not the only ones to make use of these highly Toxic Beverages since the sorcerers of my world were one of the first individuals of make use of them. and used them on almost daily basis. You are mages and sorcerers too. so i assume that you have ways to overcome such a trivial impediment as this; aren't you? besides is not like all the potions turn to be letal, i'm sure you could create your own potions that would not kill you in the process?".

"well yes; but to put ourselves at such risk, is it really worthy?"

Now Geralt was clearly losing his temper "I had also assumed that full fledged mages like you would have at least an ounce of boldness, such thing is necesary in a quest for knowledge. Clearly i was mistaken. When has anything that is worth doing not having strings attached? there is always a price to pay for anything in this life. and the price to pay to receive this temporary augmetations is worthy. it is a fair deal"

"i don't known, i have many doubts about this, i'm not sure if we should expose ourselves to such danger" said alchemist burroughs.

Of all things that could make Geralt lose his temper, the only ones that could clearly do it; are hesitance and incompetence. that is because of his highly perfectionist demeneaor he doesn't have much patience for that sort of things. and he makes it known by shooting a hard look of disdain toward alchemist Burroughs. deeply scaring him and others due to such a sudden and extreme change. (Geralt's looks can change from blank and neutral to terrifiyng and unnerving in no time).

"I found your lack of determination most taxing" he said.

"Please mister Geralt, don't be so hard with alchemist Burroughs he's just concerned about the well being of the apprentices, as any good instructor will do. surely you cannot blame him for that" said Jaina trying to appease the witcher.

"Totaly clustering those under your charge from danger, will only result in an inability for them to deal with it; they must be exposed to it in order to learn. only then would they achieve the certainty to overcome it. But fine i would not expected for everybody to know that. A more graphic demostration is in order then"

the witcher pulled a vial of a sky blue liquid and adressed everybody in the room "Now; pay much attention, this will be enlightening" he gulped the liquid in a single movement. and surely enough the potion started to bring changes to his physiology. Muscles twitched and spasmed, veins trobbed and hardened. it looked as if some invisible force was sudenly and violently taking hold of the witcher's body. it was a most unnerving sight and many of his viewers were starting to feel queasy by the mere sight of it.

finally the potion started to settle in and geralt's body visibly relaxed. He breathed and looked at alchemist Burroughs "punch me in the face" he said.

"Excuse me?" asked Burroughs caughted off guard by such an odd request.

"you heard me, come over here and hit me. I know you want to do it; besides, you wanted to know if my alchemy arts are worth the risk. what perfect way than to prove their worth than by using them in oneself?" Geralt saod.

Burroughs looked at Rhonin for counsel, but he was as perplexed as him by this sudden development. in the end he said "well this is his area of expertise, so he must know what he's doing... i think?" not having much choice Burroughs aproached the witcher hesitantly; Not sure of what to expect. Burroughs looked at him for a few seconds and took deep breaths to calm himself.

"ok, i hope you know what you are doing, because well i can pack quite the punch if the need arise" he said to the witcher.

Geralt smirked "Don't worry. i've got it all covered"

Burroughs breathed with determination. he closed his fist in a strong grip and yelled while delivering a front blow to Geralt's face. it conected with a strong clap, but suddenly something unexpected happened. Burroughs head jerked backwards violently, he squealed in pain and clutched his own face in the same side in which he had punched Geralt previously. On the other hand the witcher merely grunted his discomfort of being hit, but otherwise he showed no reaction.

When Burroughs removed his hand, it was revealed that he was bleeding and had lost one of his teeth. That caused an avalanche of reactions.

"What happened? Burroughs are you alright? what did you do to him?" demanded Rhonin.

"Me? Nothing, i haven't moved a muscle" said the witcher feigning ignorance.

Rhonin was helping burroughs getting back to his feet "don't play coy with us now, it is clearly that something hurted Burroughs enough to bring him to make him bleed; Burroughs can you tell us what happened?"

Alchemist Burroughs was gasping for air, raising himself with dificulty "it felt as if i was the one on the receving end of my own attack instead of him, it was as if my own flesh was being hit, how is that possible? i hit him in his face not in my own one"

Jaina was curious about that. she looked at the distraught figure of Burroughs. finding nothing strange in him, except for his injuries. she looked at Geralt to his face only to find him with a little tiny petty smile at the corner of his lips. that made her suspicious; so she aproached Geralt while still looking at his face trying to discern what he knew. he would give her nothing, inwardly he was having a good time enjoying the mages puzzlement.

Jaina pointed at the witcher with her finger and slowly move it towards him, until she ended touching his face with the tip of her finger. he raised an eyebrow at that; Jaina kept touching -more like patting- geralt's face in different places with her finger.

"Jaina, what are you doing, child?" Asked Aegwynn

"I think i know what happened, i'm just trying to confirm my suspicions" she replied. Very slowy she nipped Geralt in the cheek like you would to a small children. that's when Jaina felt the sting.

"Owww" she yelped

"Jaina, are you alright child?" asked Aegwynn with concern.

"Yes Aegwynn, i'm fine is just... something odd, i felt the sting when i pinched him"

"Really? now that is interesting"

Jaina pinched Geralt again getting the same reaction.

"Owww"

"Careful" said the witcher "i would not like to see a pretty lady hurting herself to get my attention"

"Ha, ha, very funny... Anyway, this is a very fascinating development. i can feel all the pain that i try to inflict on him, as if it where I who is in the receiving end instead of him"

"mmm" mused Aegwynn "that potion's effect must be transfering all the damage he receives back to his attacker".

"Huh?, you got it right at the first try, i should give you a reward for guessing correctly the effects of Shrike" said Geralt.

Vol' Jin murmurs where heard in the background "It's lik'a Voddo doll only dat' backwards"

"Wait a minute" said Rhonin "you knew from the beggining that this would happen don't you?, you knew that Burroughs was going to get hurt"

Geralt merely shrugged. "He wanted to know the usefullnes of my alchemy, now tell me if this is not useful in a battle; i also wanted to teach him not to doubt of a witcher expertise. i'm sure he would not forget it any time soon"

"You are a cruel and harsh man"

"I'm harsh, yes of course; more so if i'm to instruct knowledge to others. my style of life has show me it is the only way to act if you want to survive. but cruel? you have a pretty low idea of what cruelty is, i'm being fairly mild in the way i'm treating him".

"What?" Rhonin was Dombfounded "Fairly mild? you make him fall to the ground on pain".

"First of all" countered Geralt "i did nothing to him, it was he who attacked me by his own volition, i just goaded him to do it, which is not much really. he could had refused, but he didn't; so what if i had forgot to mention the effects of my potion, you are the ones who wanted to see the effects of my alchemy anyhow; why are you getting upset then?"

Now it was Varian opinion that was heard in the Background "Isn't he quite the charming fellow? Right, Rhonin?" Rhonin ignored that comment.

"This is you being mild?" he asked.

The witcher chuckled and gave Rhonin one of his sinister looks "Belive me when i tell you; you don't want to see me when i'm being cruel, it is most unpleasant to the sight" this caused a general chill to run down through his viewers.

"besides" Geralt dismissed the situation "now that we have went with all of this, we can continue with this demostration for i am pretty sure that no one would doubt of the qualities of my alchemy again; am i right?" Geralt looked towards the crowd of Kirin Tor apprentices; silence was his answer "Good; then let's move; on what's next" he said.

Rhonin interrupted him "wait a minute! before we continue; it would be a good idea to call for the prescence of a priest, otherwise it would be imprudent to continue without someone that can help us deal with intoxication. You should had tell us before that your potions are toxic"

Geralt thought a minute about that "A priest, huh? well i suppose it has merit. but were are we suppose to find a priest in this city. i didn't saw any church or shrine during my previous trips into town".

"Previous Trip_s_?" questioned Jaina. That made Rhonin to rush in, in order to avoid the subject to stray into Geralt's innoble midnight adventures.

"It would not be that hard. All i will have to do is send one of my helpers into the city and look if there is one available and bring him to us. after all this city receives many visitors daily; so i'm comfident that there should be one passing through that would fit our needs"

"Nice" rebuked Geralt "Now we are going to start grabbing people at random from the street against their will. I expected that kind of behaviour from the nobles and lords back in my world. but i didn't know that you people in this place were in that sort of oddities too. I swear that with each day i spent in this world i feel more and more like home".

"Is nothing like that!" Replied Rhonin highly shocked by such accusation "We do not force no one to do anything against their will; i was going to tell my helpers to **_ask _**them if they would be willing to give us a hand and if not then see if they could direct them to someone willing to help us".

"sure, sure, whatever you say; just go ahead and do your thing. is not like i have the authority or influence to stop you from carry out your evil wicked plans".

Jaina chuckeld at how Rhonin seriously stared in disbelief at Geralt for a few moments without uttering a word "Right" he finally said "I'm just going to do my _thing_ before my head explodes from sheer awkwardness" with that he departed from the room.

"Please have mercy on the children" yelled Geralt after him earning several chuckles from the apprentices in the room.

Couple of minutes later, Rhonin had returned in the room. he looked at Geralt intently and pointed a finger at him.

"I want no smart comments coming from you, is embarassing for someone of my position to hear the things that you imply. not to mention the image that you give of me in front of the apprentices".

Geralt was most unconcerned of that as his posture could tell "fine i will not say anything to **_you_**, but only because i like you and because you asked it so nicely; so how much time your little conscription will take?" he asked.

"Is not a conscription" waved Rhonin dismissively "And it should not take to long, i hope. In any case, i would like us to wait for the priest before you continue with your demostration".

"oh, so that means i'm going to have a lot of minutes without doing anything?... Fine i would have to make due; so carry to answer me some questions?" inquired the witcher.

"Questions? yes i suppose so; as long as is nothing outrageous" marked Rhonin.

"Yeah, Yeah; Wharever; so how was that you got your nose broken?".

* * *

_20 Minutes Later._

Rhonin's aides returned with a priest in tow. she was a lovely thing , geralt thought. she was dressed in robes befitting her role. long, regal white robes with blue trim and adorned with religious symbols. she even had one of those ridculous hats that the people of the ecclesiastic tend to use. she had light reddish hair and hazel eyes. her hair was cut short reaching only jaw length. she carried a staff that had the tip shaped in the form of a ray of light when looked directly. she also carried a mace strapped at her waist. Odd Geralt thought, he didn't know that even the priests of this world were militaristic. at any rate, the priest bowed and introduced herself to Rhonin.

"Greetings Archmagister Rhonin, I am Marie Gentletouch. i was informed that you required the assistance of a healer"

Rhonin adress at her and explained to her the situation and also made the pertaining introductions.

"I see" Marie said "I will keep a watch to ensure your aprentices safety, archmagister and intervine should i detect any sign of discomfort. so were should i stand by?".

Geralt decided to intervene at this point "One moment milady, before we start. if i may be so bold as to ask a question?"

Marie was briefly puzzled but carried on with it "Not at all, Master Witcher. what is that you want to inquire of?"

"I would like to know how Rhonin's gang of thugs (Rhonin's aides scowled at him) managed to get at you" he said.

Marie blinked uncertanly "Excuse me?"

Geralt made one of his rare shows of emotion and smirked mischiveously, this forebode ill for some reason. "yes what did they do to bring you here? did they knock you out and dragged you here? Did they threatened you? are you being blackmailed? i hope they dind't hurt you much, i told Rhonin not to be so rude when carrying out his evil plans"

Rhonin was not amused and facepalmed, his aides were alarmed and stiffened giggles of people trying to contain their laughter where heard all over the room. Even his wife Vereesa was trying hard to supress her laughter.

"You promised you will say nothing" Rhonin groaned.

"I promised i will say nothing to **you**, that doesn't stop me from asking to other people. you should learn to read the small lines" Geralt countered

The priestess was certainly caught of guard. her eyes wide big time and all she was able to say was "huh?".

Jaina was smiling greatly, she decided to end Rhonin's discomfort "Nothing to worry about, hes just fooling you around" she said.

Marie relaxed after that and nodded "oh? Okay".

"One day your smart-mouthness will come back to bite at you" said Rhonin restoring his semblance.

Geralt was still grinning "As if already hasn't do it in the past. besides i think you are a little rusted in this game, so i have no worries of you getting back at me"

"Ha, you will see i am full of surprises master Geralt" Said Rhonin haughtly.

"Aha, i will only believe it when i see it. at any rate, enough of playing around. we have work to do" Geralt's face turned abruptaly and immediatly into a mask of seriousness after that "let's get started" he said.

only a whisper was heard after that. From Lor'themar i might add "It is utterly amazing the way that he can control his feelings and reactions so completely and easily like if he was changing a mask or something"

* * *

"Very well, first let's see some basics" declared the witcher "I know many of you may know about the basics of alchemy but i need a headstart so bear it with me" the aprenticces nooded.

"Now, as we all know alchemy is all about mixing different ingredients for the creation of certain objects; like potions, oils and bombs".

"Bombs?" inquired one of the younger apprentices clearly surprised by the last statement.

The witcher huffed, he did not liked being interrupted "Yes bombs; little explosive devices that can make your enemies blow in multiple tiny little pieces of gore, or incinerate them until there is nothing but ashes from them. depends of the type of bomb though. there are also the ones that can poison and choke your enemies to death. and also..."

"We already know what bombs are" interrupted the same student mildly insulted at how Geralt refered to him as if he was a retard.

"then why do you asked what a bomb is in the first place?" replied geralt with jeer in his voice.

The young aprenticce was even more insulted by that "I just thought odd to be making bombs using alchemy, normally those things are the knowledge of dwarven enginners and gnome thinkerers"

"Pfffth... And how do you think that they make that discovery in the first place? did the rock itself growed bombs for them to mine, or did they experimented by mixing different ingredients and minerals to see their reactions; isn't that called alchemy?"

"Yes it is alchemy" said thinkerer Mekkatorque "we are always working and experimenting with the minerals that lay under the rock, that is how we manage to achieve great discoveries from time to time, one of them was the mixture of certain salts and minerals to create explosive devices".

this ended the discussion with a grinning witcher and an apprentice mumbling under his breath.

"Now were was i; ah yes mixtures created by combinig certain ingredients, which can be herbs, minerals or monster body parts, whatever. they required a medium referred as base. the base determines the type of mixture to be created. Alcohol is the base for potions..."

"Really?" said King Magni raising an eyebrow, then he was smiling from ear to ear "Ye' know suddenly i found ye'r trend of alchemy really appealing, master witcher"

"Yeah well, knock yourself out." replied geralt "it will be fun to see an overpowered dwarf running around and breaking through walls due to an excess in his potion drinking. that is until your body sucumbs to the toxins in your bloodstream and we will have to go through all the merry work of detoxify you. well the nice priest over there will have to do it, because i will not touch you not even with a stick"

some mild chuckles were heard after that.

"seriously now, it is most unwise to drink multiple potions at once. the balance and measures behind each one are extremely precise and delicate, if they mix suddenly between themselves. it could kill you outright"

":gulp: well i'm sure they ain't that tasty like a good ole' pint of mead" blurted king Magni.

"Riiiiiight!" Geralt deferred with a raised eyebrow " Anyway; getting back on the subject. Alcohol is the base for potions, grease is the base for oils, and black powder is the base for bombs. then you apply all the other ingredients per instruction by the formulaes and you would have your mixture of choice. sounds simple! but it requires finesse or your will end up blewing something, most possible yourself"

"but back on topic" Geralt brought forth his book of alchemical formulaes. at that the eyes of Jaina and Sylvanas gleamed with anticipation. one due to her scholar curiosity. the other because of her dark schemes.

Geralt slammed the heavily bound book into the table, sanpping everybody into attention. he opened the book and stopped in a page to his choice. displaying complex magical procedures in a strange foreing language for all to see.

"This -he reffered pointing to the book- are magical formulaes. here are the steps that are required to be performed in order to create a mixture. And the exact measures and ingredient preparations for it to happen"

Rhonin, Jaina, Aegwyn, Burroughs. All of them leaned closer into the table to look at the book contents. it looked quite complex to their eyes. more so due to the fact that none of them could understand the language in which it was written.

Jaina smiled and made a content sigh. she looked at the witcher and crossed her arms. "i'm afraid we would not be able to make much use of this, since we don't understand how to read them" she said.

The witcher smirked "indeed, did you think that i would be fool enough to expose this world to foreign magic just like that, without a second thought? No, all alchemical formulaes are written in the ancient elder speech of my world. An old tongue spoken for ages in my world since primordial times. Today only the elves and those educated enough to learn it can spoke it. And since it is a language exclusive of my world it makes me the only one in the face of this land to be able to read its contents."

The witcher grinned mischiveously "An excelent deterrent; don't you think? this would help to avoid that the knowledge contained in this pages to be misused by anyone"

The mages were very impressed by the witcher cleverness, some even were amused. On the other hand sylvanas scowled and cursed under her breath, since she was at the very back of the room no one paid her much attention.

"Very clever of you Master Geralt" said Rhonin "I would assume that you will teach us this exotic language or at least translate it for us to be able to use this formulaes".

"Of course" Geralt replied "for now i will translate it for you, later on i could teach the language to you and others of your council that you deem worthy to withold this knowledge"

Jaina was curious about the language itself, such was her avid pursue for knowledge. New things tend to fascinate her. she gently asked "I would like to hear some words of this language if is not much trouble at all mister Geralt"

Geralt stared at her direction. curious little thing aren't you? he thought; also she looked quite cute when asking. beaming with her curiosity and eagerness. Geralt smirked; fine, i am if not pleased to indulge such an attractive woman.

"Not at all _elaine_" he said outloud.

Jaina blinked in confusion, she clearly didn't understood the last part "I'm sorry -she awkwardly blurted- i'm afraid i didn't get that last part".

"It is elder speech" he said "It means beautiful"

"Oh?... good to know" Jaina said, suddenly rotted into her spot and starting to feel a little flustered. She was sure she was getting red on the face. Good i have the cowl on she thought.

The witcher took notice of his discomfort and was quite pleased by it. she looked quite pretty while embarrassed. but since he didn't want to cause grivance to her he decided to shift attention.

Geralt turned around and leaved the table just like that, without saying anything and leaving puzzled expressions in his audience (Geralt always doing unexpected things without telling anyone of his intentions) he approached and pointed outside towards the sun.

"_feainn_" he said "sun" he pointed next at one of the towers in the background "_tor_, tower" he turned around and kept pacing around the room. he pointed now at one of the elven helpers of Rhonin. "_Seidhe_, elf".

Geralt continued with his pacing. this time he aproached Aegwynn and pointed at her "_Hen_, old" that got some giggles to be heard in the background.

Aegwynn was bemused "Careful master Geralt, you would found that this old tigress still retains her fangs and claws" she admonished.

"oh, that would be interesting to see, looking foward to it" he playfully said.

finally, he turned around once more and looked at his audience. Geralt started to charge the sign of Igni in his hand. he gently released it while extending his arm creating a flame that engulfed his hand and part of his arm "_Aenye_, fire" He said while looking at the flames.

He let the flames die out and turned around once more to speak to Jaina "I assume this will be enough to satisfy your curiosity for the moment" he said.

Jaina nooded with her head, impressed by the great amount of knowledge the witcher possesed "Good" he said "now its time for me to show how witcher alchemy is made".

* * *

So the witcher carried diligently on the task to translate his formulaes for the mages. He chose a formulae of his liking and proceed to explain them what ingredients were nedded, the amount required and the procedure to make the potion. He did not explain them which potion did he had chosen or what its effects would be or do. When questioned about it, he said that it was a surprise which he didn't want to spoil. That didn't reassure anybody after what happened in his last "demostration". So Geralt had to assure them that it was nothing designed to bring harm to any sentient being; that it was nothing more that an enhancing potion to improve a certain specific skill in the drinker's body.

Geralt carried on with the task of making the potion itself, that's when his abilities as master alchemist were shown. He was swift in his endeavour; hands flew between ingredients, equipment and displays at great speed. He was methodical, precise and efficient like a machine. One of the most impressive displays, was at how the witcher demostrated that he knows mesurement quantities by memory; he didn't require mesurement devices for the liquids and ingredients, giving the correct exact mesures without more or less quantity, just the correct one. The mages were utterly impressed by that of course, more so since Rhonin and Aegwynn had mesured it themselves to make sure Geralt was not comitting mistakes (something that vexed him a little, but they leave him alone after that, finally realizing that Geralt easily surpassed even their best alchemists).

It didn't take long before Geralt brew a potion. He put a vial in the table filled with a sky green liquid. "It is done" he said " Now, who of you is brave enough to drink it".

There were a lot of uneasiness after that, with people fidgeting or whispering among themselves. None whising to become another _subject _for Geralt's demostration. Not after what happened last time.

It would seemed that Geralt would had to pick someone at random; luckyly or unluckyly for him, Jaina beat him to the act by grabbing the vial herself. She looked at the liquid inside the glass in her hand with an inquisitive look. "I am so curious to experiment how this feels; it looks painful, but the effects that i have saw thus far are very interesting" she said.

Geralt was debating wether or not to let her drink that potion, the toxins could cause her discomfort and indeed the transformations are painful but he is acostumed to them; Jaina is not, so it could be a very gruesome experience for her. But she is brave and from previous tales of her essential role in the last war, it seems she is stronger than what she lets herself show.

Geralt made his decision. He would let Jaina to have a go at it; but not before some words of advice. "If you wish to try it be my guest" he said to her in a neutral tone. But then he became somewhat stern in his next statement. He practicaly materialized himself in front of Jaina startling her and others due to the witcher swift reflexes. No one was able to process when the witcher crossed to the other side of the table and put himself in front of Jaina; Such was his speed. "But i warn you, it is indeed quite painful; pain is an old friend of mine. So i have no trouble with it; But i cannot avoid from feeling somewhat concerned about you. It could be quite an unpleasent experience for those who are not initiated in this art. But; If you are brave enough, then i would advise for you to mentally prepare yourself for this ordeal. Also do not forget to imbede some anti-toxins first; otherwise you may become ill".

Jaina nodded to him; still somewhat agitated by his little stunt. She pretty much suspected that such mannerisms of were something normal to him; he didn't even looked like he put any effort of his part to acomplish it in the first place. If there was any doubt about the veracity of Geralt's statements aboout him being a very dangerous and lethal individual; such thoughts were now tossed out of the window. She could easily imagine that; if Geralt somewhat desired it, he could have killed her at this close range without her and the others being none the wiser. That make her feel a sense of helplessness; that she could die in a second without being able to fight back in any possible way. no one in her entire life had made her feel this vulnerable. It frightened her in her insides, but also being this close at someone who was really dangerous and powerful; well, it was somewhat exciting.

Jaina was so engrossed in her thoughts she didn't realize that Geralt had signaled the priest Marie to give her an anti-toxin; not until she had Marie at her side offering her the beverage. That put her put of her train of thought; it also made her to mentally scold herself for her self-distraction. A mage of her status should paid more attention and be more attentive.

Regardless of her lapse. Jaina quickly grabbed that beverage too and gave her thanks to the priest before drinking the anti-toxin in one sip. She then proceed to consume Geralt's potion; but just before putting the vial to her lips she remember Geralt's advice. She looked at him and saw that he was watching her with an attentive look, like he was waiting for any sign of mishap in order to act. That thougth was amusing for her; the cold and expresionless killer being concerned for her health. It was quite the flattering thought.

Not wanting to waste more time in silly thoughts; Jaina drank all the potion in one sip, only to let the vial fall and crash into the ground because she was suddenly bombarded with a terrible feeling. PAIN! But not any kind of pain like the ones she was accostumed made either by injury or disease.

This one was something new. An overwhelming torture that treathened to torn her mind and body asunder. Her veins felt on fire, pulsating due to the potion running and saturating her bloodstream. She felt as if her organs were to melt. All her body reacting at the same time rejecting the beverage. Her veins thickening and throbbing, her bones ached and constrained. it felt as if her whole skeleton was either going to break or violently burst out of her body. This thoughts were accompanied quickly by desperation; a feeling that was not easy to dispel, less so by the fact that she felt like suffocating. She started to cry and wanted to scream but was unable to do so, only a pitiful whimper was all that could come out her throath.

Geralt quickly pulled Jaina into an embrace knowing that even though all he could do was give her moral support, it would mean the world for those who go through her ordeal. Jaina roughly took hold on him, grabbing him as if for dear life.

Rhonin, Aegwyn, Marie and the rest of the magister staff were heavily concerned for Jaina safety, they tried to rush at her, but Geralt stop them with a signal an stern look "Hold it, there is nothing you can do for her. This is her challenge and only her can pull herself out of it. Just wait".

True to his word, eventually, after what felt like an eternity (Specially to Jaina). The potion effects started to settle and the spasms of Jaina's body stopped. She released a strangled breath, trying to pull all the oxygen she could into her lungs. she was still grabbing Geralt in embrace, refusing to let go. She was scared it was understandable, he knew.

"It's alright" he said. "It is the same for all of us during our first time".

Jaina wipped her tears off and Geralt gently let go of their embrace, but without breaking their physical contact. He was now grabbing her from her shoulders. Jaina had her face buried in his chest; but even so, he could see her smile of mirth.

Jaina's voice even while muffled due to her position; it was clearly heard by Geralt and everyone else.

"You know my first time was such a special and gently thing. Not like this and certanly different from yours in both accounts if what you said is true."

This one of those rare moments in which the witcher is complete and utterly dumbfounded by being caught off guard. Geralt could not practically think in anything to said and his face was a testimony to that. Just like everyone else.

Jaina took a small peek at Geralt face and could not stop from giggling at what she saw.

"JAINA" Rhonin and Aegwynn said both at unison. Outraged and amused at the same time they were.

Geralt was still staring but suddenly he craked a smile that turned into a full smirk and a rare sound was heard coming from his throath. Rare, because no one had yet heard him making it so. it started low and barely audible at first, increasing in volume until everyone was able to recognize it.

It was laughter. A full whole hearted laugh that echoed in the room. It leaved everyone of his audience looking oddly at him, even Jaina. Time for first times it was indeed, this was the first time that anyone from Azeroth heard Geralt laugh. Jaina was unable to resist and ended joining him in his fit.

Eventually he stopped and quieted his laugh. He was smiling now. "You are indeed a remarkable individual, miss proudmoore. Not many could go through such a traumatic experience the way you did. I'm impressed, something that is not easy to achieve".

Jaina beamed a smile of her own through her hood. But the moment was not meant to last. Geralt was all bussines again, making use of his impressive way of changing into his mask of coldness in less than a sec.

"Now if you would please lower your hood and raise your sight; you will be able to witness the abilities that the potion has granted for you" he said.

Jaina was put into her train of thought again. She had forgot of cheking what changes had her body endured. She did what Geralt told him without question. And when she raised her sight, she discovered that the world was changed and different.

* * *

Note: As always review; you bastards i know you are reading this story; i'm receiving the alerts to my mail. But you don't review.

In any case, inform me of whatever error or misspeling i could had made. I'm only mortal after all.


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